The 54th Student Senate held their sixth meeting of the semester on Tuesday, Oct. 16 in Student Union (SU) 418.
Student Association (SA) President Josh Simpson told the senate that he spoke to college President Donald Christian about Park Point, the future site of a 700 unit housing project. Simpson said Christian offered to come to the next senate meeting to discuss the project and answer any questions about it.
Simpson also said he and SA Vice President Manuel Tejada spoke with the head of Sodexo, and he said there will be a late night menu at the Grill as well as blue plate specials and dollar off items after a certain hour.
Tejada said the “Know Your Rights” forum will take place this Thursday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. in Lecture Center 102. He asked senate members to encourage friends and peers to attend.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Jonathan Espinosa said he met with Library Dean W. Mark Colvson and discussed concerns such as late night study hours. Espinosa said Colvson is open to ideas and has decided to meet with Espinosa once a month.
The Constitution Reconstruction Committee (CRC) met for the first time on Tuesday, Oct. 16, and Espinosa said they wrote the second legislation of the senate during the meeting.
Vice President of Finance Youssouf Kouyo said he spoke with Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS) about adding HD to dorm cable plans. He said the $50,000 fund is in a specific cable account, and that CAS said the money will remain in the account if unused.
Kouyo also said Residence Life will be sending out a survey to students on campus to determine whether the HD channels are necessary or not. He also said he asked CAS for movie channels, but in the past only a handful of students subscribed so it doesn’t make sense to add those channels again.
Student Association Productions elections were held and two students were elected to the board.
Senate reports were made and one senator said bikers approached him and asked about placing bike pumps on campus. He said he is contacting John Shupe, assistant vice president of facilities and management about this.
An intern at NYPIRG said by their deadline this past Friday, they registered 1,700 students to vote. She said NYPIRG’s next step is to make sure students are prepared to go to the polls and are educated about the candidates.
John Wilson, town board member on the Environmental Conservation Bureau (ECB) spoke to SA about the environmental concerns of Park Point. He said the 50 acres of land past the police station on Rt. 32 are abandoned farm lands. Among other issues, he said the soil is contaminated with arsenic and considered toxic waste. This could be a health risk for future residents, especially if well water is used.
Simpson said there are two senate appointed seats on the Pepsi Committee. One student was nominated and elected onto the committee during the meeting. Espinosa said there are two seats available on the Academic Affairs Committee, which meets every other Wednesday at 3 p.m. in Coykendall Science Building 24. A senator was also elected onto the CRC board.
Espinosa brought up Declaration #2, a legislation CRC drafted at their first meeting in response to problems students on CAS board had with transparency with the RFP. He said students asked to see a packet before CAS sent them to food vendor bidders and CAS agreed, but the students did not receive them until bidders got the copy of the RFP.
Espinosa read the declaration, which other members revised, and the legislation was passed.
The SA goal list was discussed and the meeting adjourned for the week. The next senate meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 23 in SU 418.