After dining on subsidized submarine sandwiches, USA members settled in for one of their shortest meetings of the semester. With no guest speaker and only a few updates shared by the executive board, most of the meeting was devoted to reports by the chairs of each USA committee and the USA liaisons to various college departments.
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. Chair Hawa Saleh updated the Senate on her committee’s successful book drive. Sophomore Senator Gabby Kaderli announced the initiative of the Public Health Committee, of which she is chair, to bring more AEDs to campus. Sustainability Chair Genevieve Fontana explained her committee’s upcoming events, which include a fall clean-up and Laudato Si movie screening.
Facilities and ITS Liaison Marja’e Johnson told the Senate that the library was considering moving its phone charging locker outside the library, to which senators remarked that they preferred the locker to remain in the library. USA Advisor Jason Francey cited a poll his office conducted which showed that 73% of student respondents also preferred the locker inside the library.
Multiple senators asked Public Safety Liaison Patrick Stouter to help make students more aware of their rights when dealing with public safety officers, and some senators also expressed their desire to get to know individual public safety officers better.
The most pressing order of business was the formation of the Rules and Elections Board, which runs USA elections in the spring semester. Speaker of the Senate Stephanie Herrnreiter, who by virtue of her office acts as chair of the board, asked a member of each class year contingent represented in the Senate to volunteer to sit on the board.
Because participation on the board does not count toward senators’ requirement to sit on two USA committees, Herrnreiter had some trouble recruiting members. The senators’ hesitancy caused Vice Speaker Mitchell Popovski, who was recently named USA member of the week, to warn that “if none of you come up with a candidate, we will randomly pick it.” Ultimately, a member of each class volunteered.
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