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Last week in senate: A fresh start and dirty hands

Writer's picture: Ava GreenAva Green

By: Ava C. Green, Editor-in-Chief


On Friday, Sept. 6, the United Students Association (USA) – formerly, the Undergraduate Student Association – held its first meeting of the 2024-2025 academic year in Grupp Fireside Lounge. The room buzzed with senators' excitement over the new location, the new faces and name until the session was gavelled in at 2:40 p.m. by junior Paige Apps, the speaker of the senate.


Much of the meeting was spent discussing changes to campus effective this semester. Advisor Jason Francey shared updates on the school’s NFTA Metro passes that will no longer be signed out at his office, but at the main desk of the Andrew L. Bouwhuis Library. Francey also welcomed a new graduate assistant, Jenna Quinn, to the office of Student Engagement and Leadership Development. He also promoted former graduate assistant Nikki Middleton to the Assistant Director of Student Engagement. 


Executive reports continued the theme of relaying updates with Vice President of Business and Finance (VPBF) Gabby Kaderli fresh off a semester abroad, and back in her position on the senate. Kaderli mentioned the changes to the club leaders' processes of appealing for funds. Before the end of last semester, incoming leaders were to submit a complete 2024-2025 budget for their organization. VPBF Kaderli explained that this effort is an attempt to alleviate the amount of appeals presented to the finance board, led by Kaderli. It is also a system which USA believes will aid the management of this money and ensure it is allocated fairly and mindfully. She ended her reports by reminding senators that appeals and allocations will still take place in the event of any changes, and is hoping it will be much less frequent than in years prior. 


A large number of the committee chairs called on senators and students alike in their reports to join their committees. USA has five committees, all of which students of any year are welcome to join: public health, sustainability, sunshine, diversity and J.U.S.T.I.C.E., which stands for “Jesuit united students together in concerned empowerment”, as J.U.S.T.I.C.E. Chair Lillian Szuba had reminded the senators in her report. She also added that her committee recently stocked bathrooms around campus with menstrual products, free for students to use. Sustainability Chair Maddie Kotch was excited to announce that she’ll be picking up where the committee’s former chair left off, listing dates for the restarting of classic USA Sustainability efforts, including campus cleanups, the first of which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 10 a.m. in the quad.


The session was quick without much to go over so early in the semester, but the USA President Tim Sanders, left senators with the impression that quiet meetings like these would not be the norm this year. He mentioned plans to raise expectations for more participation from our senators in events, volunteering, as well as USA’s various projects and around campus in general. “This year, we’re seeking to expand USA in every aspect,” said Sanders, “We’re ready to start getting our hands dirty!”



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