The 52nd student senate discussed a bill created by the Constitution and Rules Committee (CRC) regarding the Student Association (SA) election process Tuesday.
Earlier in the meeting, SA President Terrell Coakley talked about the plans for the program held on Nov. 30, “Can We Talk About It?” Coakley said he wanted the program to have an intimate setting, so if more than 300 students show up, he planned on splitting the audience into groups of 30 people.
Vice President of Academic Affairs and Governance Ayanna Thomas also announced there are more than 40 students running for the 15 seats on the student senate. She said voting for the student senate begins Dec. 7 and ends on Dec. 9.
Students can vote by logging in to their my.newpaltz.edu accounts. Thomas also announced that the library survey was finalized by Raymond Schwarz, associate vice president of Student Affairs, and it will be distributed via e-mail to students to determine how they’re going to modify library hours.
During his report, Senate Chair Alberto Aquino said there were also hate crimes reported at the University of Buffalo. A Muslim student, the victim of the repeated hate crimes at the school, found two swastikas keyed into her car and had racially-based remarks yelled at her. Aquino announced that the SUNY Student Assembly is working on a SUNY-wide movement about diversity and the powers that keep racism intact.
After the reports, Sens. Samantha Kossin and Mark Malizia talked about Article 14, Section 3 of the SA constitution.
The bill stated in the case that there is a tie between two senators for senate seats their “names shall be placed on uniform index cards and selected at random by the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Governance in the presence of the senate during the first legislative session of the semester,” the person selected will be granted the seat.
“I didn’t really think that was a good way to go about the election,” said Malizia. “I figured that if it’s that random, it doesn’t necessarily fulfill anybody with a desire to have the most qualified and the most enthusiastic student on senate.”
Sen. Malizia created a bill stating if two or more people are tied for a seat on the senate, the candidates will have to appear before the senate and present to them. After the two candidates present they will be sent out of the room and the legislative body will vote on which of the two tied candidates will get the senate chair.
The next senate meeting will take place Dec. 6 in room 418.