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17, 2014
STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION
SGA continues momentum with lively agenda at Tuesday’s Senate meeting Ryan Caulfield
SGA Correspondent A plethora of good and solid information was given out at the latest Student Government Association last Tuesday. Rebecca DiVico, president of the SGA, welcomed all the senators back from the Columbus Day holiday and began the meeting. She appointed Katherine Robinson as the Student Athletic Council Representative to SGA for the 2014/2015 academic year. Robinson’s job will be to act as a liaison between the Student Athletics department and the SGA. DiVico then announced on Oct. 21, in the Loughman Living Room located in Scanlon Hall, there will be a discussion on the progress of the new Science Building and Wilson Hall backfill renovations. She said the meeting is open to the campus community. After the madam president was finished, Ken Haar, who is the legislative director of PHENOM, Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts, spoke to the SGA. Haar said PHENOM’s mission is to fund public higher education, make higher education affordable and accessible to all, and to advocate for lower student fees. Haar gave each of the SGA senators a card to fill out their contact information and in turn they will receive updates on PHENOM as well as ongoing events from the network. Haar said that the Massachusetts Teacher’s Association, last month, gave PHENOM a $50,000 grant to set up a chapter on the Westfield State University campus. He said he hopes all SGA senators will advocate the new chapter to their constituents thought their respective committees and clubs. Scott Seskevich, president of the class of 2017, asked Haar if PHENOM would be just on campus for the fall and spring semesters. Haar said that PHENOM works 12 months out of the year and has a light schedule during the summer where they have organizational training for any student interested. Jon Cubetus, representative to the class of 2017, asked what other projects PHENOM is working on besides establishing chapters on campuses. Haar said one of the big things is developing the message of freezing fee
increases in the 2016 budget year. “This year only UMASS Amherst has had that happen to them. You will learn when dealing with the legislature there is an awful lot of divide and conquer down there and pit one part of the system against the other. PHENOM tries to keep everyone together because that’s our job,” Haar said. After Haar was finished Joshua Frank, student representative to the board of trustees, gave his report. He said the meeting was very long and the board covered numerous topics. Frank said the board approved a proposal to charge first year students $100 if they do not complete the Alcohol EDU and the Havens sexual assault awareness and reporting online courses. The goal of the fee, Frank said, is to make the students complete the course and that each student has been warned of the fee and the remaining students who have not completed it received emails. He said this new policy would only affect about 40 students if they do not finish the course. Frank also announced that the board approved a new project on campus to replace HVAC units in Bates, Wilson, and Parenzo Halls as well as adding new lights and other sources of eco-friendly energy alternatives. However, Frank said, the project has no official timeline.
Frank also happily announced that the new science building has been officially 100% paid off by the university. He lastly mentioned that the presidential official began last Wednesday but the presidential search committee would not begin until next spring semester. “The board did not decide upon a date as to when we would want have a new president by; we want to make this a slow and smooth process,” Frank said. The next board meeting is Dec. 15 at 3 p.m. in the president’s boardroom. Joshua Clark, vice president of student life, said that the Substance Advisory Committee met for the first time on Wednesday and discussed the marijuana policy on campus. There are a lot of gray areas and conflicts with federal and state law that exists on the policy, Clark said. He went on to say that Massachusetts has been more liberal on marijuana than the federal government’s no-tolerance policy. “If a student has a letter from the department of public health to have it in their possession, and they are caught with it on campus, what happens? So we need to figure out these intricacies,” he said. Clark also announced that the Outreach Counselor Search Committee has made a decision to hire Julia
Jewish students celebrate Sukkot at the Ferst
Nedry for the Counseling Center. He said Nedry would be counseling and doing stress relief work and sexual assault prevention topics. Lastly, Clark said Residence Life have made good progress on the new renovation project of for Dickinson Hall. He said the similar renovations that took place in Davis Hall would be done to Dickinson Hall, where the bathrooms will become common rooms. Both halls will have their common areas and entrances renovated as well, he said. Clark said Dickson’s renovations will take place in the summer of 2015 and the entrances of both halls will be done in the summer of 2016. Justin Connolly, community relations and fundraising representative, said the blood drive, or as he jokingly put it as “Justin’s first annual blood bash,” was a great success. He said the goal was to get 117 donors, but they got 131 donors. At the end of the meeting Interim President Dr. Elizabeth Preston and Dr. Carlton Pickron, vice president of student affairs, surprised the SGA senators by bringing MoFroYo and other dessert treats. Pickron said it was courtesy of interim president herself. It could be just a coincidence, but national dessert day was Tuesday. The next meeting of the Student Government Association will be Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m. in the Peter D. Mazza Student Government Room in the garden level of Ely by Dunkin’ Donuts.
in this week’s issue campus news & life Sukkot Celebration Homecoming - Oct. 25
opinions & editorials ‘Liberal View’ ‘From the Editor’s Desk’ ‘Ladies Lifestyle’
arts & entertainment Book reviews ‘Knowing to Cook’
owls athletics
PHOTO BY REBECCA FRANSMAN FOR THE WESTFIELD VOICE
Story and photos of the Sukkot celebration that took place at the Ferst Interfaith Center on Friday can be found on page three.
Owls Football and XC Rebmann & Burke’s columns ‘Sports from Carlin’s Couch’
westfieldvoice.com @westfieldvoice
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