On Wednesday, Oct. 22, the student senate met to hold committee elections and to discuss the many upcoming programs on campus and within the New Paltz community.
At the start of the meeting, senate discussed the request of response from the President to the academic affairs committee from a resolution passed in February of 2014.
They discussed the reform of student SEIs. One of these changes is students will have the opportunity to write open-ended comments. This will work by students signing the back of the form if they desire their response to remain student to faculty confidential. Additionally, SEI forms could contain a checkbox to release these comments. Mid-semester SEIs were also proposed as well as having a teacher mentorship program for new faculty who seek to improve on their teaching.
There will be an academic senate meeting on Friday, Nov. 7 in Lecture Center 104 at 3:30 p.m. where the reform will be discussed.
Next, fourth year political science major, James Auer discussed an upcoming event on Oct. 28 from 1-5 p.m. titled “Rock the Vote.” Held on the SUB concourse, students will be able to enjoy local bands, performances by campus organizations and hear from New Patz Town Councilman Dan Torres. In addition, food will be provided by local businesses that include Jordan’s Bistro and Rock Da Pasta.
The main purpose of this event is to educate students on candidates who are running for the midterm election.
Auer said the program is promoting midterm elections.
“We’re educating about things that are happening on Election Day and why you should vote,” he said.
Another event students can look forward to is Black Solidarity Day on Nov. 3. There will be two buses leaving campus, one at 8 a.m. and one at noon. This event will take place at the Pointe of Praise church in Kingston until 6 p.m. Students will be able to hear from Jasiri X, an underground rapper.
The Sojourner Truth Library will begin to start its renovations on the first floor in early November. There will be a temporary wall to block off the entrance where the vending machines are currently. The hallway that leads to the steps downstairs, will be where laptops can be checked out. It is said that two printers and 30 computers will move downstairs.
To accomodate students, the Lecture Center will run on library hours. Lecture rooms 102 and 104 will be used as late night study rooms but will close at 12:30 a.m.
Dorm buildings are also putting in efforts to help students by designating a lounge as a study room.
Starbucks will be closing but will be temporarily relocated to either Jazzman’s in JFT or to Parker Theatre.
The goal is to have renovations completed by Thanksgiving.
A legislation was proposed to modify preferred name options. The goal of this legislation is to condemn the situation that happened and for future occurrences to be avoided. In addition, to adopt a SUNY-wide policy that is practiced to share gender pronoun initially, so a situation like this does not reoccur.
Senate concluded this meeting with the discussion about if there really is diversity within SUNY New Paltz’s campus. “There are only 12 Native Americans on campus this semester,” second-year senator Yaranny Reynoso said.
They left on a note to think about how our campus can improve on diversity, and how senate can function to achieve the most possible productivity.