The Student Association held its eighth meeting of the Senate for this semester on Tuesday evening. Following the meeting being called to order and quorum being satisfied, the meeting began swiftly. The meeting and agenda minutes were approved allowing the meeting to move to it’s first order of business, guests to the Senate.

The first guest to the Senate for the evening was the student organization Two and a Half. They have existed for nine years on campus and their main goal is to combat and raise awareness about sexual violence and assault. Two and a Half will be hosting their “Raise Your Voice” event, which has been taking place annually for the past nine years. The event will be taking place at the end of April corresponding with Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Although the organization does have funds in their budget, and they have paired up with SAPB, they requested funding to help with the costs for the rest of the event. Two senators offered to write the bill which will be voted and presented at a later meeting this semester.

The discussion of Broad Based Fees which include fees for health, technology and athletics, were presented so students were fully aware as to where their money was going. The Broad Based Fee for this upcoming school year will be $25, split three ways to cover the health, technology and athletics fee. The health fee includes everything from counseling services offered on campus, to the clinic/nurses office at Mary Walker. This fee in particular also allows the lifestyles center within Mary Walker to operate. This fee allows things such as toilet talk, open mic night, student health surveys and condom deals on Wednesdays to exist.  The technology fee is also essential to campus because of the prominent presence of technology in students’ daily lives. They are looking to increase the technology fee, but that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be any additional benefits that comes along with the increase. The increased technology fee would allow SUNY Oswego to increase network bandwidth and add close a million wireless access points around campus. The technology fee is put in place to ensure that all students have the best access to internet and assistance at all times. Finally, the athletics fee is also expected to increase. Since SUNY Oswego has had the second highest number of teams in the conference for the year, there is a greater need to help fund/support the various sports teams on campus.

The meeting moved smoothly onto executive reports seeing as there were was no one for public comment. Student Association President Emily Nassir was the first to give her executive report. There were no new updates on OzFest, however Nassir has been very busy with meetings to get the SA Food Pantry up and running. Nassir has attended several meetings and has another one coming up to discuss the plans and budget for the pantry. Nassir also stated that SA is currently in the process of working on the new contract with Centro, the bus that allows students to travel from one side of campus to the other as well as from campus to in town and vice versa.  Nassir will continue to update students and senators and new information arises.

Shelby Gallaro, SA Vice President was next to deliver her short and sweet executive report. Gallaro revealed that over 900 students voted in the elections on Monday and Tuesday. The election included the voting on the referendum to determine if the student registration fee should be mandatory or not, as well as the election of the new offices for President and Vice President of SA. Matthew Peters shortly followed Gallaro in executive reports, in which he informed senators he started to go through budget requests for the clubs and organizations. There will be more meetings throughout the week to work on and approve the budgets. So far, the process has been a success.

Committee Reports was the next order on the agenda for the evening. Rules and Judiciary revealed that they will now be meeting bi-weekly for the duration of the semester. Finance Committee did not meet this week, however they will meet next week with the several clubs and organizations whose budgets need to be written in order to be proposed and voted on. The Involvement Committee closed out committee reports by revealing that they are currently working on the “Miss-A-Meal” project for the end of the semester.

Hall Council reports were delivered after committee reports, there were however fewer reports. Johnson Hall has reviewed and made changes to their constitution which will then be put to a new vote to see if it passes or not.

The short and sweet hall council reports led to the adjournment of the meeting seeing as there we no general, nor special orders for the evening. The Student Association meets every Tuesday in Lanigan 106, at 6pm. The Senate meetings are all open to the public and students are encouraged to attend these meetings to voice their opinions and express their concerns.

The Student Association held their weekly meeting of the Senate Tuesday evening, marking the third one of the Spring semester. The number of senators required for the meeting to start was met, and following the approval of the meeting agenda and minutes, the meeting was well under way.

New Student Association Vice President, Shelby Gallaro had an exciting first meeting in  her new position as she controlled the meetings agenda due to the absence of new SA President Emily Nassir, due to her attendance at a conference in Boston. After calling the meeting to order, Gallaro introduced the first guest to the Senate of the evening, the SUNY Oswego Counseling Center. The Counseling Center presented at the SA meeting, to introduce themselves and explain the services they offer on campus. Located in the Mary Walker Health Center, they are dedicated to getting students the best care and help they can. The Counseling Center helps students deal with everything from short term grief to personal issues one might be having in a relationship or at home. They also informed senators of their hours of operations, 8:30am-4:00pm Monday through Friday, and their crisis hotline, which allows students to talk to trained and professional counselors if they need help when the center is not open. The Counseling Center also explained their confidentiality policy which guarantees students that the information they talk about/reveal will be kept confidential, unless the information could potentially harm that person or others around them. They have been working with faculty and residence hall directors to train them and provide them with the ability to recognize when confidentiality needs to be broken. The Counseling Center is just one of the many resources available to students on campus to allow students to get the help they need.

The second guest to the Senate was the Future Alumni Network (FANS) on campus, who attended the meeting to inform senators of the program “Love a Donor Day”. This day allows students and the university to give back to those who have made donations to SUNY Oswego in the past year. FANS revealed that over $5.2 million was received in donations last year, which was a great help due to the fact that only 20 percent of the school’s costs is funded by the government. Senators were given the chance to write postcards to the donors thanking them for their support and donations which allow SUNY Oswego to be as great as it is.

American Sign Language club was the third and final guest to the Senate, requesting funds for their upcoming event in April. ASL is a newly funded club by the Student Association, and the club has been working hard to spread the word about this new club on campus. The goal of the American Sign Language club is to educate students on ASL, teach them how to speak the language, and make students more aware of their culture. They were requesting funds to help with an event taking place on April 18th on campus, which features comedian Keith Wann, who is a child of two deaf parents. ASL requested funds to help with the costs for refreshments, ticketing for the event to monitor how many people can attend, and interpreters for the event. They are also holding their own fundraisers at Fajita Grill and Friendly’s to help offset the cost of the event. Two senators offered to help write the bill for the budget, which will be proposed and voted on at a future meeting this semester.

With no public comment for the evening, the meeting moved swiftly into executive reports. Shelby Gallaro, SA Vice President gave SA President Emily Nassir’s report due to Nassir’s attendance at a conference in Boston. Nassir is currently and continuously working on her first project as President SA Assembly, which will be a monthly meeting allowing SA to talk with all the organizations on campus to grow a better connection and provide help if and when they may need it. Following Nassir’s executive report, Gallaro gave her first executive report as SA Vice President. She revealed that she is very excited and honored to be working with SA and the Senators and is looking forward to serving as their Vice President. Gallaro encouraged all senators to attend a workshop SA is holding on Friday in Marano 102, which will feature a former SA President who will share his experience in SA and offer advice to the senators. Finishing her executive report, Gallaro provided senators with information on SUNY Day, an advocacy day in Washington DC on capitol hill. This will give students the opportunity to address and meet their congressmen and congresswomen as well as the chance to network and promote legislative advocacy. Gallaro moved onto the Director of Finance report, but due to the absence of Matthew Peters, no report was given.

In committee reports, the Rules and Judiciary, Finance and Involvement committees informed the senators of their position in the Student Association. Rules and Judiciary serve SA by looking over the code, constitution and bylines as well as reviewing the elections of SA positions. Finance committee’s purpose is to review the funds requested from SA by student organizations, as well as keep tabs on the budget SA is allocated each year. Finally, the Involvement committee serves to inform students on what SA is and how they impact the decisions made on campus. The Student Association Involvement committee can be seen tabeling in the Marano Campus center several times each month.

Hall Council Reports followed committee reports, where representatives of several residence halls shared programs being developed or taking place in their halls. Johnson Hall revealed the are currently working on putting together a speed dating event for students in their hall. Cayuga Hall is currently hosting weekly/bi weekly movie nights, the first one taking place this Thursday night. Funnelle hall has decided to change their hall council meeting time in order to accommodate as many students as possible. The hall is also working on organizing and hosting a male beauty pageant. Oneida hall shared the last hall council report and reminded senators of their red carpet event taking place this Friday at 8pm. Students will be given the opportunity to walk down a red carpet, take photos with friends, and enter a bessed dressed contest.

There were no special orders for the evening, however, there were four general orders due to last meetings time constraints. The first order of the meeting was to vote on the proposed budget for Model United Nations, to provide them with funds to help them attend their conference and promote their new club. The bill for Model UN passed and these funds will help this new organization expand and help with their expenses for the semester. Ecology Club’s proposed budget was the second bill to be voted on for the evening. The club requested funds to help with the costs of their end of the year Whale watching trip, guest speakers that attend their meetings and bird feeders and seeds to maintain the ones currently in the Lagoon on campus. The requested funds was cut down prior to the construction of the bill, due to discrepancies with budgeting for their end of the year trip. Upon voting, the budget passed by general consent and the funds will allow this growing club with their costs for the semester. The third bill to be voted on for the evening was the budget for the Table Tennis Club. The Women’s team is expected to attend the Women’s Ping Pong Tournament in Ontario Canada. Funds were requested to help with travel and hotel costs.The budgeted bill was voted on and passed. This was an expense that the Table Tennis Club did not expect for the semester, but are extremely proud of the women’s team for making it into the tournament and are excited to see their teammates showcase their skills, hard work and dedication. Brothers and Sisters in Christ was the fourth and final bill to be voted on for the evening. The organization requested funds to help with costs for their trip to Basiccon in Rochester in April, a new banner that effectively promotes their organization and a new drum they use at their weekly meetings for worship. Students attending to trip to Rochester are required to pay a fee, however due to 38 students attending the conference, BASIC needed additional help with the hotel and travel fees. The budgeted bill was voted on and was passed with 22 senators in favor.

Tuesday night’s meeting came to a close following the passing of all the proposed budgeted bills. The Student Association has their weekly meeting of the Senate on Tuesday nights at 6pm, in Lanigan 106. All meetings are open to the public and students are encouraged to attend to express any views or concerns they may have.