The semester’s first Council of Organizations meeting was held on Monday, Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Student Union Multipurpose room.
Council Chair Rose Faber called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m. with a board member introduction. Student Association (SA) President Josh Simpson, SA Vice President Manuel Tejada, Vice President of Finance Youssouf Kouyo, Vice President of Programming Esthephanie Peralta, Academic Affairs and Governance Vice President Jonathan Espinosa and Senate Chair Yaritza Diaz all attended.
Tejada announced the SA will be hosting a “Know Your Rights” program on Oct. 18 from 8 to 10 p.m. in Lecture Center 102 and that an email regarding the event will be sent out to students.
After the introduction and announcements made by SA E-board members, Faber began elections, first notifying clubs to submit their charters for the fall 2012 semester by Oct. 12 at 11:59 p.m.
Molly Thurston nominated herself, and being the only candidate, was unanimously voted council board vice chair. Faber then asked students to sit with their designated houses, in which clubs are divided by the nature of their function to elect their board representatives.
The representatives elected were: Advocacy, Elizabeth Pinto; Academics, Erica Vaccero; Media, Kaycia Sailsman; Fine and Performing Arts, Doodnath Ramdhanie; Athletics, Matt LaSpada and Social/Cultural, Mili Ali and Kimberly Boland. Faber told the representatives to meet with Council Secretary Heather Rae after the meeting.
The next elections were for programming board, conducted by Peralta, in which there were seven seats available. Those voted onto the board were: Nicole Rivera, Brittany Jordan, Shanti Esdelle, Drew Thompson, Sean Bailey, Jake Canull and Jarred Slatky.
Elections for the budget and finance committee followed. Kouyo said the committee is in charge of $1.5 million a year.
“We oversee requests from any club that’s over $1,000 and decide whether the amount the club is asking for is worth spending,” Kouyo said.
He announced that if any club wants to find out their budget for the semester was, they should ask him.
“If you are planning to have food at your [general interest] meeting, request now,” he said, and announcing that clubs will only have access to food one time.
He also mentioned that clubs requesting transportation for trips outside of New Paltz would be given 2/3 of the amount and would have to come up with 1/3 on their own.
Six people nominated themselves for the five available seats on the finance committee and the winners were: Anne Rich, Rosemary Owuo, Dana Dobrzynski, Jaimie Albanese and Matthew Solano.
The last elections, conducted by Espinosa, were for the five seats available on the Constitutional Rules Committee. The five students who nominated themselves, Amber Lee Acosta, Ki Soo Kim, Nadeen Zoheir, Kyle Ducham and Paul Hotaling, were elected onto the committee.
Before the meeting was over, Peralta announced that nominations for SA Productions will be held at the next council meeting on Oct. 1.