Student Senate met Thursday, Nov. 19 over Zoom for their weekly meeting. It began with the Oath of Office for the newly elected first-year representative, Ryan Nguyen.
Executive President of Senate Matthew Hetrick told senators that the meeting would end before 5 p.m. so that everyone could attend the virtual gathering for Professor of Biology Thomas Murray. This meant that some orders of business were tabled until their next meeting.
The meeting still began with administrative reports, with Vice President for Student Life Dr. Celestino Limas beginning per usual. He took the time to show senators some results from the fall semester experience survey, which had 834 responses.
Some key takeaways include that 53.54 percent of respondents felt that the restriction on inter-hall visitation was the most difficult adjustment. Limas said he’s happy that options like the new Marketplace set-up and wearing masks were ranked low, but that the COVID Task Force will have to work on this. Average self compliance rankings for things like completing the Daily Digital Health report, mask guidelines and social distancing were close to “always.”
However, the ranking for ability to find a space to relax/socialize was an average of 48 on a scale of 0 being always and 100 as never. Senior Rachel Freed commented on this after Limas’ presentation, stressing that the COVID Task Force needs to look into this. She says that otherwise she feels students may be going off campus to hang out with friends if there is not space to do so on campus.
Freed also commented on the Thanksgiving dinner. She said she heard that many students enjoyed it, but there was not always space to socially distance. She said Dining Services should look into more themed dinners for the spring, but maybe have sign up times to space out when students are going.
Assistant Director of Campus Security Dale Boyer also gave a report. He said some students have received scam emails offering a job. According to Boyer, the tip-off that it is a scam is that they will offer to send you a check upfront and then ask you to send someone money from that check before it ultimately bounces. If you get a scam email or an email that you are unsure about, Boyer said to report it to ITS.
The meeting moved into executive cabinet reports. Executive Treasurer junior Kyle Cappucci reported that the Finance Committee approved requests from Melica, the Dance Team and Mad Cow Improv for shirts and jerseys.
With the committee election tabled, senators then moved into presentations from each class about their advocacy projects.
Junior class president Jessica Freels started with the Class of 2022’s project promoting accessibility on campus. She provided background, saying that the 22’s have been working on this project since the beginning of their first year where they focused on ADA compliance. She then outlined goals for next semester.
Sophomore class president Andrew Furman and sophomore class vice president Jalen Belgrave presented next about diversity and inclusion on campus. This semester they made progress by beginning their diversity film festival with a showing of the Netflix documentary “13th,” as well as a panel discussion about the documentary. They also outlined goals for next semester, as well as long-term goals for the next two and a half years.
First-year class president Madison Holmberg presented on the Class of 2024’s American Sign Language (ASL) advocacy project. Holmberg said their class has partnered with ASL club and talked with Limas about ways to educate. She outlined their goals for next semester as well, including education and possible events.
5th-year counselor Hannah Paymer reported that she does not have an advocacy project, but she has been sending weekly email updates to graduate students. She also has a goal to host virtual events over the break for graduate students to connect.
Senior class president Freed wrapped up the presentations. The Class of 2021 was given the advocacy project of the housing contract their sophomore year and then were given environmental advocacy last year. Freed says they spent this semester brainstorming ideas for smaller advocacy projects to complete in the spring.
The meeting ended after these presentations due to time. Student Senate meets for the last time this semester Thursday, Dec. 3 at 3:45 p.m. over Zoom.
