Members of SGA debate and discuss new policy proposals to be adopted at Hofstra University.
During the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate meeting on Thursday, Feb. 13, senators discussed issues experienced by commuter students, laid out goals to connect with and advocate for more clubs and celebrated a successful start to recognizing new clubs on campus.
Regarding commuter students, senators spoke first about Hofstra University’s lack of shuttle service to Mineola Station during the day. Since there is no shuttle service between 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the week, students may be forced to stay on campus longer than they wish to. Commuting members of SGA also made it clear that, despite constant service to Hempstead Station, getting home from Hempstead, New York, could take much longer than from Mineola, depending on where students live.
Commuting students unaffiliated with SGA echoed these concerns.
“Hempstead’s [Long Island Railroad] station is rather small, so only one train comes per hour,” freshman political science major Harkiran Sahansra said. “As a result, there are more stops, and it takes double the time to return home than if more shuttles could simply go to Mineola.”
Moreover, the number of shuttles does not sufficiently accommodate the volume of students and faculty, so some commuters are left behind or are forced to cram onto the buses, creating potential safety hazards.
Senator, freshman political science major and commuting student Jack Ehrlich spoke about plans to rectify this issue.
“Me and another commuter student [senator and freshman mechanical engineering major Logan Finkelstein] are considering starting up a petition … which would basically advocate for an additional shuttle and all-day service,” Ehrlich said. “We would like to pass it on to Public Safety as well as upper administration.”
Senators then spoke about supporting commuting students in the event of inclement weather conditions, such as those that caused a delay on Thursday, Feb. 6.
SGA Communications Chair, junior public relations major and commuting student, Ava DiSanto advocated for more consideration for commuting students’ safety and accommodations in moments where commuting to class may be dangerous.
“They can’t control the outside streets, but they can control the Hofstra parking lots,” DiSanto said. “They can plow the snow out, they can make parking lots available for commuters and they can make sure professors accommodate [commuters] when they do have car troubles and [there are] road issues.”
Vincent Castelli, a junior accounting and music business major and commuting student unaffiliated with SGA, expressed some frustration with measures, such as the delayed opening on Thursday, Feb. 6.
“If a commuter has back-to-back classes and one of them is scheduled on Zoom, but the other two are in person, this means they will still have to perform their average commute to school despite the weather and try to find a quiet place to join the Zoom on campus,” Castelli said.
Senators then moved toward deliberation regarding connecting to more students by inviting clubs to speak at the senate. While leading this conversation, SGA Vice President and sophomore forensic science and chemistry major Jewels Joyal stressed the importance of curating an environment where clubs feel comfortable attending senate and of making SGA more outward facing, so they can advocate for clubs effectively to upper administration.
“We’re supposed to support students and everything that student life entails, so bringing more outreach to the people, I think, is really important, so that’s why I’m kind of thinking about that theme for this semester,” Joyal said.
To close the meeting, SGA chairs reported on their work throughout the week. Emphasis was placed on the 21 new clubs that applied for recognition, which gives them access to a GetInvolvedHU page, the ability to rent spaces on campus and club funding.
SGA Club Resources chair, junior political science and public policy and public service major Evelyn Quail claimed this number is much higher than average. She credited her committee’s work publicizing the application with this achievement.
