The Hofstra University Student Government Association (SGA) had their first open forum meeting of the year on Thursday, Nov. 14, inviting students to directly interact with student government representatives.
The meeting began with an introduction from President Kathryn Harley and Vice President Kaylor Dimes. “We’d love to hear from you, and we’re very excited to hear about your different experiences about making things happen on campus,” Harley said, describing the open forum meeting as an “open line of communication to the students.”
Though attending students did not speak up much at the start of the meeting, Harley and Dimes were eager to talk about their preparations for the upcoming Student Appreciation Week.
Initiatives spread beyond the student body to larger-scale proposals. “We are working on an initiative to bring renovations to the library,” said Club Relations Chair Joey Alameda. “It started with data from student surveys from last year. They are starting with the study rooms, so there’s going to be Wi-Fi in all the study rooms, new furniture, new lighting and flooring, and they’re going to look into putting accessible gender-neutral bathrooms on every floor.”
The leader of the environmental club on campus, Caroline Bowes, mentioned the fact that efforts are being made to make Hofstra a more sustainable institution. “A resolution that is in the works … is being made to make Hofstra carbon neutral,” Bowes said. “[This] holds the university accountable for the carbon that is being [emitted].” The resolution would force the University to either pay for or reduce its carbon output and, according to Bowes, if enough people back this resolution, it would be a positive step toward sustainability on campus.
Each member of SGA was very excited to bring new information to the table whenever possible. Though students in attendance did not publicly voice concerns during the duration of the meeting, Dimes encouraged them to come up and talk to SGA members privately, an offer that some students took up after the meeting officially ended.
“We have a lot of different avenues for students to go down to get involved in SGA,” Harley said at the conclusion of the meeting. “If you are really passionate about something on campus, and you want to draft a resolution, you want to refine SGA policies because you think they’re unfair, anything like that, you just have to work with one of our senators, and you can bring it to our senate meeting where we can pass it, so there really are so many different avenues that you can go down.”
