Last week in Senate: Student concerns and headshots

By Andrew Nowel and Jase May, Editor-In-Chief and Sports Editor

Last week, the United Students Association (USA) spent the first 30 minutes of their weekly meeting discussing student concerns as well as executive reports. The rest of the meeting was held in the Quad as every member got their professional headshot. Kicking off at 2:30 p.m., USA began their third meeting of the semester.

Multiple concerns were brought up to start the meeting as Sustainability Chair Lizzie Pike raised the issue of a poster that is around campus that has a QR code on it. They noted that the QR code is a scam and that students shouldn’t scan it. Moving on to the issue of Dugan Hall and the sinks on the seventh floor, raised by a senator, the answer to the issue is that facilities will get to the work orders as soon as they can. Facilities Liaison Abby Joy said that she will talk directly with the head of facilities, Matt Wylucki, to resolve the issue.

Heat in Frisch Hall and Bosch Hall has always been a constant complaint, and Senator Todd DeMarco advocated for box fans for all dorms. Two suggestions were made by Vice President of Business and Finance Dominic Vivolo and Executive Vice President Paige Apps. VPBF Vivolo noted that students can go to Student Life to request a box fan if they don’t have one, but there are only a limited number of box fans. EVP Apps suggested that Senator DeMarco make this his senator project, something that he can work on with student input to figure out a solution for this issue. Before the executive reports were made, a new senator, Evan Cipriani, was sworn in.

President Leyla Akil began executive reports by noting that Alec Wheeler, Assistant Director of Athletic Facilities, and his staff are working to get more hours for the Palisano Fitness Center after a question was raised about it in a previous meeting. EVP Apps didn’t have much to report other than a reminder that all USA members should be doing their office hours. VPBF Vivolo reported that the Finance Board has been finalized and will begin meeting soon. Finally, Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations (VPMPR) Briana DeGlopper asked senators to start thinking about their senator projects, and a video will be coming out about them on the USA Instagram.

Next was Advisor Jason Francey’s report. He started by explaining Griff Weekend, which was last weekend, before moving on to address the Evict ICE group that had been on campus in recent days. Canisius groups and organizations can sponsor outside groups, but Evict ICE went beyond the agreement they were in, according to Advisor Francey. In regard to the letter that was sent to Canisius President Steve K. Stoute that was also posted on the Evict ICE Instagram, Advisor Francey and President Akil will sit down with Dr. Harold Fields, Vice President for Student Affairs, and answer all questions at the next senate meeting on Oct. 2.

The meeting transitioned outside into the Quad as every member of USA got their headshot taken as well as group pictures, taken by Canisius photographer Brianna Blank. With the rest of the meeting outside, the meeting minutes indicated that only Sustainability Chair Pike had anything to report from the committee chairs as they announced that monthly cleanups are back this year, and that the cleanups will be the last Sunday of every month at 10:30 a.m.

Finally, each liaison’s report didn’t have much to report. However, Library Services Liaison Jaiden Gilbert reported that the library will be celebrating Banned Books Week next week, starting on Monday, Oct. 5 with more information about each event in the library. With all of that, once everyone was done in the Quad, the meeting was adjourned at 4:13 p.m. The next USA meeting will be held on Oct. 2.