The SGA Senate debated a number of new policies at their meeting on Thursday, March 6.
At the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate meeting on Thursday, March 6, senators discussed SGA elections, Spring into Action Week (SAW) and solutions to budgeting issues within club sports.
The beginning of the debate was centered around whether the sitting president and vice president should be allowed to serve on the elections commission and whether they should be allowed to endorse candidates. During deliberation, senators voted that the sitting president and vice president will be allowed to serve on the elections commission and to endorse candidates as they see fit.
SGA then moved into discussing the upcoming SAW week – which they refer to as Keep Hofstra Beautiful – which will occur on the week of Sunday, March 23.
SAW week will consist of a myriad of initiatives led by SGA, the Office of Intercultural Engagement and Inclusion, the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement and various other clubs and administrative bodies across campus.
“Keep Hofstra Beautiful week will be a great opportunity for SGA and other departments to engage with the Hofstra community,” said SGA President Lincoln Anniballi, a senior political science and history double major. “We want to support students, bring the resources available to students to them and generally advocate for our initiatives … [We want to ensure] that we can engage, create community and have an awesome week welcoming everyone back from spring break.”
Some of the events happening during SAW week include Sex Fest (a sex workshop with prizes), thank you notes to custodians and professors, a large-scale art installation where students collectively create a large intersecting web of their identities called The UNITY Project and tabling with SAW merchandise.
Afterward, Anniballi spoke regarding a budgeting issue wherein proper funding has not been given to many of Hofstra’s club sports.
“We are currently working on a proposal to ensure that club sports can be supported sustainably into the future by the university,” Anniballi said. “We’re looking at how other universities function. We’re thinking of our own innovative ideas, working with club sports and with campus recreation to ensure that this proposal – whatever it ultimately is – is done collaboratively and in a way that supports every single group and checks off every need that club sports need.”
Senior political science major and SGA Comptroller Sydney Greenlaw added to this sentiment by saying, “Working to make sure that club sports are accurately and efficiently funded is at the top of our priorities … Working by ourselves, we can’t fully fund that … But along with [the division of Student Enrollment, Engagement and Success] and different departments on campus, we can definitely work to fully fund them, and I think that’s our biggest priority moving forward.”
The budgeting issue has affected club sports in a number of ways but is felt particularly during competitions.
“Hofstra is only paying for our entry fees for tournaments,” said Robert Beanland, a junior Italian major and treasurer of Hofstra’s ultimate frisbee club team. “They are not providing reimbursements out of the budget provided. Team travel and hotels have to be completely fundraised.”
Finally, members of SGA’s cabinet revealed which of the initiatives presented at the Feb. 27 Senate will be pursued. Of the 10 initiatives proposed, SGA will pursue three: a Hofstra field day promoting fitness and wellness, an initiative to make Hofstra’s campus more accessible – called Make Our Campus Accessible – and an initiative to add Advil to Hofstra’s vending machines and add more automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and EpiPens throughout campus.
“I’m feeling very honored; I think it’s a really great initiative, and it’s a really great project … just to help prevent any injuries on campus,” said Celeste Orellana, a junior nursing major and one of the four senators who presented the Advil, AED and EpiPen proposal. “We do have first responders, but they might take a while to get to campus, so it’s just something that we can have on deck in case an emergency does happen.”
The cabinet also encouraged senators to continue pursuing the initiatives that were not ultimately chosen.
To get SGA Senate minutes with more detailed information about these developments, visit https://www.hofstra.edu/student-government-association/documents.html or email [email protected] to request them if they have not yet been posted.
