On Tuesday Evening the Student Association held its weekly meeting of the Senate. The meeting was called to order making it the seventh meeting of the Spring semester. Quorum to begin the meeting was met and following the approval of the meeting minutes and agenda, the meeting proceeded.

The first and only guest to the Senate for the evening was a new campus organization Strong and Healthy. This new organization is committed to teaching students aboudy body confidence as well as the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. On April 22nd in the Marano Campus Center at 6pm, Strong and Healthy will be joining another organization on campus, Pencils of Promise, to host an exercise circuit event. The goal of this event is to encourage students to formulate daily workout habits and routines. Students will be given the chance to participate in various events such as, push-up contests, dance competitions and more. Strong and Healthy requested funds from the Senate to help promote the new club and ensure the event’s success. The funds would help contribute to tee shirts, water bottles, healthy snacks, backdrop for pictures and prizes for the event. Two senators offered to help write the bill and proposal which will be voted on at a later date.

In light of there being no public comment for the evening, the meeting moved on to executive reports. Student Association Vice President Shelby Gallaro, was the first to deliver her report. Gallaro shared with senators that Laura Kelly, organizer for SUNY Oswego’s homecoming, was looking for three to four senators, who would like to become a part of the student homecoming committee. Any senator, freshman through juniors, are eligible to participate and if interested, they were encouraged to email Gallaro.

SA President Emily Nassir, was the next to deliver her executive report. Nassir revealed that plans for the new SA website are well underway and she is currently looking into the photography portion of the webiste, which would feature all senators’ pictures, that way students are aware of who their campus representatives are. Nassir also shared with senators that the discount app is currently up and running. Students can download the collegediscounts app to their phones and then search SUNY Oswego to see all the discounts offered at the various businesses the school has partnered with to provide this service. In an earlier meeting this semester, Nassir shared a project she was working on with auxiliary services, but little information could be revealed at that time. Nassir revealed updates on this new project at Tuesday evening’s meeting. She will be working with auxiliary services to bring students’ food favorites from the dining halls, to the small markets like Lake Effect Cafe and Ontario Bagel Company located on campus. This new plan is generated toward students who commute or don’t have a meal plan, that way they don’t have to pay for a full meal at the dining hall, they can just pick up their favorite foods at one of the stores on campus. To progress the planning process, Nassir plans to generate a survey, which will then be placed on all of the class pages on Facebook. Students will be encouraged to list their favorite foods from the dining halls, that they wish to be sold in the various markets on campus. Nassir plans to keep the Senate updated on this new project as progress is made.

Matthew Peters SA Director of Finance, delivered his executive report following Nassir. Peters revealed the plans to dive into the new organization budgets for next year, next week. The senators will be reviewing the budgets within the next few weeks and in the final weeks of the semester, organizations will be given the chance to attend the weekly SA meetings to dispute the budget if they disagree with the budget given to their organization. To finish off his executive report, Peters stated that OzFest is moving along and hopefully all preparations will be finished and finalized by next week.

Generally, there are only three executive reports at each meeting, however, SA Director of Legislation, spoke to the Senate about “Rational Tuition 2020”. Under the trustees and government body of SUNY, tuition can be raised for students at a specific amount allocated by the Rational Tuition Bill passed five years ago. The goal of this bill was to allow students to be able to predict the amount of tuition they will be required to pay during their undergraduate schooling period. Currently, five years later, SUNY SA is pushing to renew the bill to avoid the unpredictability of increased tuition costs. Failing to renew the bill would result in the government having control over tuition costs which could result in an increase in tuition at any time.

The meeting moved swiftly onto hall council reports seeing as the SA committees were unable to meet this week. Mackin shared that their laker life event “Mash Safari” will be taking place this Friday at 8pm. The event will include snacks and beverages as well as live animals including a kangaroo, snakes, alligators and more. Funnelle Hall announced that they will be holding their “pie your RA day” on pie day. Students can pay a small fee to throw pie in their RA’s face and all money raised will go back to their hall council.

Organization reports were next on the agenda. Senators revealed the Oswegonian, the campus newspaper, is looking to put together a Business Sales Team. Their job will included going to local businesses to encourage them to purchase as space in the paper. Any senator or student interested, are encouraged to contact the Oswegonian.

There we no special orders for the evening, there was however one general order on the agenda. The Adrenaline Hip-Hop Team on campus is a new organization who requested funds from the Senate, to help the team with promotions. The funds requested are to help with flyers, markers, posters and paints, all to be used to help with club promotions. The proposed bill and budget was passed by general consent, and the fundy will allow the Adrenaline Hip-Hop dance team to get their name out to students on campus.

The meeting came to a close following the general orders for the evening. The Student Association meets every Tuesday at 6pm, in Lanigan 106. All meetings are open to the public and students are encouraged to attend to express any opinions or concerns they may have.

This past weekend both the women’s and men’s hockey teams got their first wins of the 2016-17 season.

The women’s team had their first road game of the year on Friday. The team traveled to New Hampshireto take on New England College. The Lakers would go on to win their first game of the season 6-1. Freshman twin sisters Jacquelin and Julieann White showed what they are capable of. Jacquelin had two goals while Julieann had a goal and a assist.

On Saturday, the women would make their way to Vermont to take on Castleton. At the end of the second period, the Lakers were up 3-0 put then the Castleon Cougars scored three goals in the third period to tie it up. Senior Kendall Applebaum would score the game-winning goal for the Lakers.

While the women’s team was away, the men’s team was home and played Elmira on both Friday and
Saturday.

On Friday, the Lakers dominated the Golden Eagles 7-1. The Lakers saw seven different goal scorers. Three of the goals were power play goals while the first goal of the game was a short-handed goal.

On Saturday, the men played Elmira again, but this time they played in Elmira. The Lakers would get their first road win of the year by winning the game 6-3. Senior Kenny Neil had a hat trick while fellow senior Shawn Hulshof assisted each of Neil’s goal.

Both the women’s and men’s team will be home next weekend. The women will play Chatham on Friday and Saturday while the men will travel to Brockport on Friday and come home Saturday and play Geneseo.

by Daniel Manou

Oswego, NY- As underage drinking and drug use grows around the country, Oswego County is trying to find ways to not only control this epidemic but turn it into a positive trend.

On a daily basis alcohol is in the public’s eyes whether from advertisements, stores or people using it around them regardless of the viewers age. According to a multi-year study by Farnham Family Services alcohol is the most used drug among minors in Oswego County. However, compared to the last survey, this year’s results are showing progress. Prevention Services Director Penny Morley believes the results of this year’s survey is heading in the right direction.

“We did a youth development survey in 2013 and another one in 2016, and our numbers are going down, youth that are reporting underage drinking,” she said.

Although Morley acknowledges the comparison of surveys shows only a small drop in underage drinking, she is still pleased with the numbers.

“Just a few percentage points, but even just a few percentage points is better than having an increase”, said Morley.

According to the survey nearly 70 percent of high school seniors have used alcohol. Most minors reported the easiest access is from their own home.

In an effort lead by Oswego County Undersheriff Gene Sullivan, police have attempted to stop underage parties. Sullivan has been working to shut down these parties and educate minors about the dangers of underage drinking since 2011. However, he has directly seen what consequences arise.

“By the end of the night we would have fights, vandalism would occur and in the worst case scenario people driving away from that party, getting into crashes some of them were fatalities,” Undersheriff Sullivan said.

In 2014, Farnham instituted the Oswego County Prevention Coalition in response to the 2013 survey and has worked alongside schools to educate the youth. According to the 2016 results, ninth grade, the same age period when alcohol is most dangerous to children, was where the usage jumped the highest.

“Anyone that uses before the age of 15 has a much higher likelihood of addiction as an adult, their brains are not fully formed at that point”, said Morley.

With the tactics that have been put in place and continue to be worked on, there have been signs that they have made an impact.

“I think there’s been tremendous progress, but it’s been painfully slow. It’s a difficult message to deliver”, said Undersheriff Sullivan.

Even with the long awaited results showing optimism, both Morley and Sullivan know their job isn’t done.