The Student Senate gathered once again to talk about their recent business. The ban the box proposal, according to Senate President Rooki Reynoso, has passed. Reynoso also proposed a fundraiser to help those in need after the Ecuador earthquake.
Executive V.P. Kelsey Ryan continued the meeting with news of legislation passing to help suggest the divesting of fossil fuels on campuses. V.P. of Academic Affairs Nicole Striffolino brought up that elections for student senate will meet Monday, and V.P. of Finance Raquell Kissi noted that the club budget numbers for conferences were 3,239 and general programming was 10,517. Esoshani Borton, council board chair, said the council of organization’s last meeting will be Monday. Paul Brown, Senate chair, said there are more students being accepted to classes, and classrooms are having more availability.
Senate members Jay Brown and Adrianna Duimage brought up the debated Springfest ticket situation on campus. Brown said that planning for the next spring concert starts in September of the year before, and that the process for setting up and selling tickets has been the same for years. The change in artist popularity is reportedly what changed the demand for tickets, catching the booth off guard when tickets sold out in less than five hours.
The ticket day being only on Monday, April 18, was to prevent people from being turned away after waiting on line. With over 7,000 students at SUNY New Paltz, only 1,000 get to go. Duimage said that less than half of the student body wanted to go in the past, so they didn’t expect to have issues that day.
With a budget of $16,000, the Senate can’t fund the amount needed to perform the solution of having a concert in a bigger venue or outdoors. The cost of the solution would warrant $35,000 to $55,000. The Senate is at the mercy of the school for potential funding or a long-term solution of building a bigger building to hold concerts.
The next order of business was to introduce the International Memory bylaw that Senate wants to present to the president of New Paltz. The New Paltz Student Association wants to establish and maintain institutional memory to keep a maintained record of its committee’s, chair’s and director’s responsibilities.
The last order of business was to introduce a plan for SUNY New Paltz to extend its coverage of Wi-Fi. The Senate agrees that this plan will increase the quality of life for students who will have hot spot coverage. The Senate will meet with administration to lay out the price quote and to present the plan to President Christian.