Chancellor Nancy Cantor and her cabinet discussed issues relating to E.S. Bird Library, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and Schine Student Center with Student Association’s cabinet at a meeting on Monday morning, SA President Jon Barnhart told the assembly at its Monday night meeting.

Barnhart informed the assembly of the meeting with Cantor and said she and her cabinet gave positive feedback. Assembly members also discussed the possibility of Class Alliance separating from SA.

‘VPA as a whole was one of the big things. We talked about it for about half an hour,’ said Board of Elections and Membership Chair Alec Sim about the hour-long meeting with the chancellor’s cabinet.

VPA administrators recently proposed the possibility of eliminating the option to take classes for zero credits. The two cabinets discussed the reasons why the possibility is being considered, and it comes down to underfunding, Barnhart said. If students take classes for one credit instead of zero, VPA receives more tuition.

As for the library, the chancellor’s cabinet is brainstorming ways to address three separate issues, including solutions for individual study space, group study space and the collections of the library, Barnhart said.

The questions about the library also led to questions about Schine. Although no specific plans have been discussed, concerns rose regarding how it can be made more appealing to students. The issues of the library and Schine work hand in hand because the first floor of the library is becoming the social area that the second floor of Schine is meant to be, Barnhart said.

‘While we know the administration is often doing things in the interest of its students, sometimes it’s not communicated that way,’ Barnhart said.

At the end of the meeting, Barnhart asked for the assembly’s feedback on removing Class Alliance from the SA constitution. Class Alliance is a branch of SA that represents students by their graduating class. SA members outside of Class Alliance represent their home college.

The concern is that Class Alliance lacks membership.

‘We’ve been struggling with membership and realized we were asking too much of our representatives,’ Barnhart said. ‘We’re now looking to rewrite the codes.’

Assembly members as a whole agreed there are problems regarding the number of representatives from each school, and keeping SA and Class Alliance separate is for the best.

‘Class Council as it currently is is having trouble representing their class in the best way possible,’ said David Woody, Student Engagement Committee chair. ‘I propose a restructuring and re-growth before bringing this back to assembly.’

Barnhart also announced that SA’s Finance Board will be having an open forum Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in Room 010 of Crouse-Hinds Hall for student organizations to ask questions about the upcoming budget process. Barnhart, SA Comptroller Jeff Rickert and other Finance Board members will be at the forum to answer questions.

lgleveil@syr.edu

Published on February 22, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Laurence: lgleveil@syr.edu | @lgleveille