At their first meeting of the academic year, Student Association officers gave presentations to the assembly on their summer accomplishments and discussed initiatives for this semester.

 

SA held its meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Monday in Maxwell Auditorium. President Allie Curtis gave a presentation about her work during the summer, Vice President Duane Ford provided an update on the vending machine initiative and Comptroller Stephen DeSalvo proposed three bills.

 

During the summer, Curtis worked with Kim Brown of Syracuse University Career Services to feature student internship experiences on the Career Services blog, providing other students with ideas and contacts for future internships. Students interested in being featured on the blog must send a 500-word blog post with photographs and contacts to Curtis by Sept. 9.

 

Curtis also met with Jonathan Taylor of the SA-SGA Alumni Organization during the summer to discuss the possibility of creating an archive of SA history and alumni information. They also developed the idea of adding the position of historian to the cabinet.

 

Curtis said she is also working to bring Elect Her, an organization that trains and encourages women to run for student government and future political office, to campus this fall.

 

Open positions

 

The positions of director of technology and judicial review board chair are still open.

 

A public relations co-chair position is open. There are open seats for representatives in every home college except the School of Education.

 

New Initiatives

 

Expenditure request forms and contingency request forms will now only be available on OrgSync and no longer on paper.

 

Ford said he is working to put vending machines with items such as condoms and toiletries in residence halls. Ford said he initially wanted to give students access to condoms after the health center closes. He now plans on adding other small items students can buy.

 

Ford said he is also working to put three trashcans on Euclid Avenue as a trial run of an initiative to clean up off-campus housing.

 

Students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts will decorate the trashcans to express Syracuse culture, he said. If the decorated cans — hopefully put into use by the end of this semester — hold up to Syracuse weather, more will be added. If not, a more basic model will be used, Ford said.

 

Fiscal Bills

 

Comptroller Stephen DeSalvo proposed three bills regulating student organization spending, particularly of miscellaneous funding.

 

When student organizations host events using SA funding, the money from ticket sales goes to the group’s miscellaneous funding account. DeSalvo said he wants to create some restrictions to keep inexperienced comptrollers from allowing organizations to use the funds in ways that don’t benefit the campus.

 

“Having served the job for three semesters now, it’s very clear to me what should and should not be done with this money,” he said.

 

Under the proposed changes, an organization cannot spend more than $500 on clothing for themselves per semester, except for necessary clothing like uniforms for dance groups. No scholarships should be paid for with miscellaneous funds, only fundraising.

 

Prize money from miscellaneous funds should not exceed $500 and should only be awarded in events with off-campus organizations. Money from miscellaneous funds should not be transferred from one SU organization to another.

 

DeSalvo also proposed creating a policy regarding donations, saying students deserve to know where their money is going when attending an event. Groups would have to specify where they intend to donate money from an event before its held.

 

Finally, DeSalvo said he would like to allow new student organizations to receive up to $250 in funding during their first year.  The organizations would have to fill out forms to be approved by the comptroller, but would receive the money immediately upon approval. Organizations that applied for funding in the fall could roll over funds to the spring, but groups that received funding in the spring could not roll the money over to the next academic year.

Published on August 27, 2013 at 3:20 am

Contact Maggie: mmcregan@syr.edu