by GABRIELLA DEPINHO, News Editor
Student Government held its second assembly meeting of the semester on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at noon in Kelly 4B where they discussed ITS campus announcements, committee updates, student court and housing.
ITS Presentation
Anita McCarthy, ITS training coordinator, gave her semesterly presentation to the assembly.
“I like to come present to the assembly at the start of each semester just to let you know how we’re here to support you and different initiatives we have,” said McCarthy.
She reminded the assembly of the availability of wireless printing, a Google Jamboard in O’Malley 401, LabSeat which allows students to check out the availability of campus computer labs and the GlanceMC app which is continuously being updated.
BAC Updates
Ryan Kwiecinski, Vice President of Finance, announced that the assembly had two budgets to vote on.
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) came to ask for funding to attend the National NSBE networking and chapter education conference in Detroit, Michigan. NSBE requested $2,827 and the BAC had decided to allot NSBE $1,700, the max amount they could allot, should the vote pass. Assembly member Liam Moran motioned to vote by voice in mind of time; the budget allotment passed unanimously.
Up next, Beta Alpha Psi came to ask for funding to attend a regional conference in Crystal City, Virginia. This year the MC chapter was chosen to compete in all three categories in the Deloitte’s Best Practices competition, so funding would go towards sending students to compete. Beta Alpha Psi requested $3,872.27 and the BAC again decided to go with the maximum allocation. The assembly again voted by voice and the vote again passed unanimously.
Committee Updates
Haley Nightingale, Vice President for Club Administration, announced that the Club Oversight Committee will be starting an events board with about ten events printed on the board monthly as an initiative to get more attendees at club events. Clubs have the opportunity to submit their monthly events to the COC to hopefully make the board.
Casey Monroe, Vice President for Social Life, announced a Social Life Committee meeting for Thursday, Feb. 7, and encouraged assembly members to attend.
Vice President of Commuter Affairs, Anna Rosario, had Liam Moran speak on behalf of the Commuter Student Association. According to Moran, they discussed some of the upcoming events, including Commuter Appreciation Day, and how commuter students can attend late night events.
“I know another thing that has been resurfacing has been the need for a commuter lounge and that’s something we are going to be trying to tackle this semester,” said Rosario.
Rosario also discussed ThinkTank which is a new initiative coming out of Commuter Services to bring together resident student leaders and commuter student leaders to discuss ways to bridge the gap between the groups. Anyone is welcome to attend the event which will be held either March 30 or April 13.
Moran also discussed upcoming “Lobbying Day” in which students will be going to Albany to lobby for the state to not decrease financial aid amounts within the state.
The Neighborhood Relations Committee, led by Marshall Strawbridge, is preparing for the Neighborhood Luncheon on Feb. 18 in Kelly on the fifth floor and is focusing on getting the word out to the Riverdale Community about the event. Flyers will be posted around campus and local businesses.
President Jaycie Cooper encouraged assembly members to spread the word.
“Especially if you babysit in the area, if you could just take a flyer and post it on whatever community board is in the area that would be great,” said Cooper.
Strawbridge encouraged assembly members to post flyers closer to the date of the luncheon so that potential attendees see it and remember it, instead of forgetting as time passes.
Vice President for Residential Affairs Isabel Quinones started out her announcements by reminding the assembly that Resident Assistant applications are due Feb 13. by 4:00 p.m. The RSA is continuing to promote Dorm Wars and announced to the assembly that there will be a Dorm Wars promotion during halftime at an upcoming basketball game. Quinones also announced that she is working with Resident Life is looking to update whiteboards around campus.
Fatoumata Saho, the head of the Food Service Committee, announced that the committee is looking to expand and would meet on Friday, Feb. 8.
Vice President for Academic Affairs Kerry Cavanaugh reported on some updates from the Educational Affairs Committee. The committee is looking to update and revise the academic integrity policy.
“A number of professors raised concerns about new ways that academic integrity is being broken so we’re looking at how we can reflect those [ways] in the policy so that there really is no ambiguity,” said Cavanaugh.
The EAC also looked at the calendar for 2019-2020 year. It is confirmed that commencement for the class of 2020 will take place during the week but Cavanaugh said she “emphasized” that the reason this change was made was to explore other options. Cavanaugh also said they are working on getting the promised survey out to about commencement.
The EAC is also working to get rid of Saturday finals and hopes to have that plan implemented for this semester. The EAC also discussed the honors program; the EAC is looking for ways to make the existing honors program more concrete and regimented, possibly offering honors classes that students can take.
Miscellaneous
President Cooper announced that the conference the executive board attended in Los Angeles in November is coming to New York on March 2. Cooper wanted to open up the possibility to attending to the whole assembly; assembly members interested in going will be able to get a spot reserved for them by Student Engagement.
Cooper also announced that the International Association of Lasallian Universities (IALU) is going to France this year. Manhattan College will be sending four students, juniors and classes below, to the two-week program; the application for the program is due March 15.
Richard Satterlee, Ph.D, Vice President of Student Life, was in attendance at the meeting and announced that this year’s program would be special because it is the 300th anniversary of Saint John Baptiste de la Salle’s passing, which is why the program will be in France this year.
Student Court Updates
Senior Class Vice President and Chief Justice of Student Court, Anthony DePinho, had some announcements about Student Court’s plans for the future and the rest of the semester.
“We’ve identified some areas that we want to extend our reach a little bit beyond the area of just reviewing parking ticket appeals. We have access to our email so you can communicate with us directly,” said DePinho. “We’re going to use that account to form our own appeals system so you can send appeals to us directly… If you feel a student has violated the code of conduct you can appeal to Student Court and Student Court can adjudicate that, which is something I don’t think anyone in this room may have known.”
He also said that students could appeal Student Government legislation, should they feel anything the assembly has passed is unconstitutional.
Another area Student Court identified as an area of growth is involvement in the upcoming Student Government executive board election.
“Our understanding, upon meeting with Michael Steele and John Bennett, is that there is an elections committee that makes decisions if cases are brought in front of them … In the fine print of that is if the elections committee hands down a decision, it can be appealed to the Student Court. Our only concern is if there is no active elections committee, there will be no appeals to be heard,” said DePinho.
President Cooper confirmed that she will be heading the elections committee and will appoint the other members to it. She also confirmed that they would be in touch to discuss this further.
DePinho also announced that Student Court’s would host an open meeting within the month.
Plans For Housing Updates
Please read more about the housing updates meeting led by Janet Stegmanin the article on page 3.
End of Meeting
The assembly lost quorum at 12:45 p.m. so the meeting was adjourned at this time. The next assembly meeting will be Feb. 20 in Kelly 4B at noon.