The Student Association held their weekly meeting of the Senate on Tuesday evening making it the sixth meeting of the Spring semester.  The number of senators required to begin the meeting were met and following the approval of the agenda and minutes, the meeting was well under way.

The National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE), were the first and only guests to the Senate for the evening. NABSE is a community service driven organization, working to bring awareness to inequalities of education. Their first project will be shipping school supplies to underprivileged children in Haiti and will be tabling every Tuesday in the Marano Campus Center to raise money and collect supplies. They are also looking to hold educational programs that shed light on the mission of their club, but NABSE do not currently have the funds to support the programs they wish to hold. They presented their budget to the Senate asking for funds to help with funds the organization needs. Two senators will be writing a budget and bill, which will be voted on at a later time and date.

Following the guest to the Senate, the meeting moved swiftly to executive reports. Emily Nassir, SA President was the first to deliver her executive report in which she shared updates on current projects she has been working on. Nassir said that the website for SA is currently being worked on and she will have more updates as there is more progression in the making and launching of the new SA website. SA has paid for the student discount app which will be renewed shortly and will give students access to partnered businesses in town, who provide discounts to students at their place of operation. Nassir also revealed new ideas that she wishes to begin working on such as, getting more involved in opening week on campus in the fall, as well as homecoming held in October.

Shelby Gallaro, SA Vice President was next to deliver her executive report. Gallaro shared with Senate her current project. She is working in a new Pay policy for senators which could potentially go into effect in the fall. This new pay system would allow senators to directly earn money as opposed to the current system which is done through dock pay. Following Gallaro’s report, SA Director of Finance, Matthew Peters took the floor to deliver his executive report. Peters stated that all of the requested budgets for next semester have been submitted by the clubs and organizations on campus. SA will begin to look through the requested budgets and will be working on them starting the beginning of next week. There were no new updates on OzFest, but Peters assured that he will be updating the Senate as new information comes in and planning progresses.

In Hall Council reports, senators shared success of programs their halls held this past week as well as plans for new programs in the future. Cayuga Hall had a great turnout for their movie themed laker night. Funnelle hosted a recycling event “Going Green for Green”, in which they collected many recyclables which will be used to help future programs in their hall. Johnson is currently working on their event with all four lakeside dorms, where students will be able to participate in intramural sports as a friendly competition between all the halls. Johnson will be bringing new updates as planning for the event advances.  

There were no special orders for the evening, so the meeting moved to the first and only general order for the evening. Rules and judiciary proposed a bill that would amend the vacancy protocol in the constitution that SA is required to follow. The bill to amend the vacancy protocol passed by general consent.

Following the only general order for the evening, the meeting was adjourned. SA meets every Tuesday in Lanigan 106 at 6pm. If students, organizations or clubs have any questions, concerns or proposals, they are encouraged to attend these meetings, as they are all open to the public.

OSWEGO, NY—On Monday, October 27, Mayor Billy Barlow and City Hall officials unanimously voted to ban the use of styrofoam and smoking on public properties. 

A concerned member of the community took the opportunity to speak about the effect of smoking on the community. 

“Discarding cigarette butts constitute the majority of litter on beaches, playgrounds, etc. The reduction of use results in reduced clean up costs for the community,” said the woman. 

Cigarette filters, e-cigarette pods and plastic wrappers all contain toxic chemicals that can leak into water supplies and are non-biodegradable. These products can also pose a major threat to children and small animals. 

“That’s the bottom line for me is quality of life. There will be improvement for us, as current residents as well as the future residents,” said Council Member Robert A. Corridino. 

SUNY Oswego students also expressed their support for the ban, but adding more can and should be done. 

“To have them all be more encompassing and have a more robust ‘Keep Oswego Clean Initiative.’ I feel like besides just banning styrofoam products they should too expand it to ban other single use plastic products as well…” said former Student Association President, Omar van Reenan. “Then we also have to take that responsibility to heart and act on that responsibility to protect not just the people but the environment of the city of Oswego as well.” 

Now that it has been passed, the initiative will go into effect on April 22, 2020, which is also Earth Day.