by Gabriella DePinho, News Editor
Student Government held its first assembly meeting of the spring semester on Wednesday, Jan. 23 at noon in Kelly 4B, filling in an open position, discussing committee updates and other new or future plans.
Mentor System
After taking attendance of all assembly members and any club representatives, President Jaycie Cooper announced a new mentorship system for assembly members.
“The [executive] board, after going to a conference decided to create this mentorship approach. It’s more of a support and guidance system for you guys so if you’re having trouble with an event or have a question or want to do something on your own, it’s basically a system for you to check in with one of the e-board members,” said Cooper.
New Sophomore VP Election
Cooper next ordered for an assembly election of a new Sophomore Vice President. Last spring, the sophomore class elected Nicole Diaz and Jack Kornutik as their VPs. Kornutik transferred out so Ireland Twiggs was brought on board as the second VP.
Diaz is spending the spring semester studying abroad in Madrid so her seat as VP was left vacant.
Cooper called for any candidates off the floor. There was only one person in attendance who ran for the position.
The candidate, Nadia Itani, a civil engineering major, e-board member of the Muslim Student Association and member of the Society of Women Engineers introduced herself to the assembly.
She said, “I’m pretty involved on campus but I’d like to get more involved in student and I think this would be a good way to get my foot in the door.
She was then unanimously elected into the position by the assembly.
Constitutional Amendments Update
Following the election, Cooper reminded the assembly of what they had voted on during the last meeting of the fall semester.
It is now mandatory for assembly members to attend all meetings, with the exception of three excused absences each semester. It is also now a requirement that class VPs jointly host one event and take part in or contribute to two Student Government events each semester.
Vice President of Residential Affairs, Isabel Quinones reminded those VPs in attendance that they are supposed to be a part of the Social Life Committee, which is headed by Casey Monroe, the Vice President of Social Life.
“We would just appreciate if the class VPs would attend all the meetings,” said Quinones.
Budget Allocations Committee (BAC)
There were two clubs, the Investment Club and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), in attendance, presenting to the assembly after being approved by the BAC for their requests. The assembly voted on the exact amounts for each allocation.
Representing the Investment Club was senior Austin Staikos, the president of the club. On behalf of the club, he was asking for funding to send eight students to the Quinnipiac Global Asset Management Education (GAME) Forum, which the club has been attending consecutively for eight years.
“Early registration ends January 25, which is this Friday. If we register before then, the price is 325 dollars per student and 400 dollars per faculty member. Since we send eight students and one faculty advisor, Professor Enobi, it comes out to about 3000 dollars to register for the event. However, we request 3270 dollars because it gives each student a budget for food and transportation since we don’t stay over,” said Staikos.
Ryan Kwiecinski interjected to say that the BAC took out the cost of the faculty advisor because faculty advisors are not covered by the BAC.
Though the club requested $3270, the vote would only give the club $1700. The vote passed unanimously.
Next up was Michael Lavalle, the president of ASCE, requested funding for two board members to attend the ASCE Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla.
“We just elected a new board at the end of last semester and now this is a leadership conference for us to go and learn good ways for us to promote events, get new members and keep up membership and open the board to many other people,” said Lavalle.
The club requested a budget allocation of $1600 but the vote was to allocate a total of $1500. The vote passed 19 to 3.
Committee Updates
Committee updates started with the Club Oversight Committee (COC) led by Haley Nightingale, Vice President for Club Administration. She thanked everyone who went to club training on Tuesday, Jan. 22 and asked clubs to keep track of attendance. The COC is open to having new members join the committee.
She also announced that club closets are now nearly ready to go. Each closet will have a label outside listing what clubs are to store stuff inside and the shelves inside the closet are also labeled to help keep things organized.
Casey Monroe announced a Social Life Committee meeting for Thursday, Jan 24. at night with Springfest and other smaller events as the main topic of discussion. She encouraged more people to join the Social Life Committee.
Isabel Quinones read updates for the Commuter Student Association, headed by VP for Commuter Affairs, Anna Rosario, who could not be in attendance at the meeting. Announcements included information about Advocacy Day, Jasper Books, Career Development Workshops, that the Commuter Chronicle is looking for new writers and that the first CSA meeting will be held on Feb. 5 at 3:30 p.m. in Café 1853.
The Neighborhood Relations Committee is preparing for the Neighborhood Luncheon on Feb. 18 in Kelly on the fifth floor. The committee, led by Marshall Strawbridge, is focusing on getting the word out to the Riverdale Community about the event. They are also looking to plan a movie night in March and joining in on the Brust Park Cleanup, on April 14.
The Resident Student Association, led by Quinones, has been working on Dorm Wars which is scheduled to be held on March 29 at 8 p.m. in Draddy. She also discussed the Dorm Survey that was shared with students and encouraged members to fill out the survey and have residents fill out the survey so that she can have more information to work with when she meets with Charles Clency.
She also addressed the water issues in Overlook saying, “That has nothing to do with Residence Life or Physical Plant. That’s just the Department of Public Works working and just shutting off our water and not telling us. I was informed by Andy Ryan, the VP of facilities, that the full day shut offs should be done.”
She encouraged people to “bombard” Physical Plant about heat and water issues and to put their names and room numbers on the survey she previously mentioned.
Kerry Cavanagh, head of the Educational Affairs Committee, announced the upcoming EAC meeting for Feb. 5 and the upcoming “kNOw more” campaign will be Feb. 13 in conjunction with those involved with Players’ V-Day to advertise V-Day. The grade replacement policy, meaning a grade C or lower, can be replaced with a higher grade, was voted into effect during the last EAC meeting.
Miscellaneous
Jara Giner, the Vice President, announced the start of Jasper Jeopardy, a fun new activity with an ultimate prize of free Spring Fling tickets and a limo ride with a plus one to the event; the first event was hosted the same night as the assembly meeting.
Cooper announced the upcoming senior ski trip that took place on Sat. Jan 26. Tickets were $20 to go to the Camelback Resort and was good for the ticket holder to use the ski lift. Forty dollar tickets included the ski lift and ski rentals.
Cooper also announced that the Title IX office would be hosting a meeting for students to discuss diversity programming. Turn to page BLANK to read more about that meeting.
Liam Moran, speaker of the Senate, announced the next Senate meeting would take place on Feb. 19. at 3:30 p.m.
He also raised awareness of the fact that a professor was holding Wednesday class at noon, which is a listed activity period. Cavanagh told him to send her the information and that she would bring it to the EAC’s attention.
Fatoumata Saho, the leader of the Food Service Committee, announced that the committee is looking to expand and to find a better time for the FSC to meet. Cavanagh requested that Saho recommend mozzarella sticks to be added to Locke’s Loft.
Chief Justice Anthony DePinho announced that Student Court would be having its first meeting of the semester on Friday, Jan. 25, reminding everyone it was a closed meeting but he would keep the assembly updated about Student Court’s further improvements.
Moran asked if the assembly would still be moving forward with a Constitutional Convention, asking if it could be hosted before the upcoming election for the 2019-2020 school year. Cooper said that the assembly would be moving forward with that convention.
The minutes were accepted soon after and the meeting was adjourned.
The next assembly meeting will be on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at noon in Kelly 4B.