SU’s Student Association fills positions on finance board

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Syracuse University’s Student Association filled three more positions on its finance board ahead of its upcoming review of advanced allocations for the spring semester, with two associate comptrollers and one secretary position during Monday’s meeting.

The comptrollers will be Ryan Nkongnyu and Kenneth Rosario, and Tim Phelps will fill the secretary position, said Dylan France, SA’s comptroller. SA leaders also presented a revision to its Supreme Court’s judicial code.

The finance board, which filled other vacancies earlier this semester, is approaching the advanced allocation request deadline for registered student organizations — which are due by 5 p.m. on Nov. 3. SA will then go through a month-long process of hearings, voting and appeals of allocation decisions, France said. The final assembly vote is on Dec. 4.

The positions filled on the finance board marks SA’s transition out of the first half of the semester, in which it primarily focused on several on-campus initiatives, said Anna Ginelli, SA’s speaker of the assembly. In this upcoming period, Ginelli said SA plans to further integrate the organization’s new members, who were sworn in in early October.

“I’m really impressed with how the new members jumped in right away,” Ginelli said.

SA Chief Justice Al Cade, who reported on the updated judicial codes during the meeting, said the SA Supreme Court first amended its judicial code on Oct. 9. Some of these reforms included affirming the court’s right to overturn previous precedent and establishing the Chief Justice’s right to determine whether a case must be kept confidential, Cade said. SA members can request a hearing from the court regarding several university matters, such as disciplinary hearings and legislation reviews, according to its Court Action Request site.

SA also proposed a revised version of its internal code of ethics, which would allow the code to roll over year to year, said SA President William Treloar. Treloar added that SA will maintain the right to amend the code as needed and will vote on the changes in a future meeting.

SA also updated the assembly on several ongoing initiatives, such as the goals of its Sustainability Forum, a committee of students who work to promote sustainable practices on campus.

SA introduced a bill which, if passed, would further emphasize the organization’s commitment to adhering to the SU’s plastic phaseout goal, which SA and SU announced along with several other sustainability goals in spring 2023.

SA’s Vice President of University Affairs Olivia Curreri and Eden Gardner, SA member and vice president of SUNY ESF’s Mighty Oak Student Association, presented the bill to the assembly. The bill outlines a method auditing internal SA legislation for its adherence to ongoing sustainability goals, they said. It also proposes an internal purchasing guide with a list of sustainable vendors to reference when purchasing for programs.

Gardner said that passing this bill would highlight SA’s commitment to sustainability to the university community and encourage similar action.

“This bill is going to be us telling the university to put their money where their mouth is,” Gardner said. “We got them to agree to these goals we set out…now they need to commit to doing this as a university.”

The bill would provide an overall assessment of the current state of sustainability within SA and identify areas in which the organization could improve, Curreri and Gardner said.

“If we can’t do it ourselves, what business do we have telling the university to follow these goals as well?” Gardner said.

Other business:

• Elisabeth Dwyer, an alumna from SU’s class of 2006 and a vice president of the SU Alumni Association, announced that the organization plans to present an “outstanding future alumni award” to an SU undergraduate student during the spring semester. The alumni association also plans to allow more students to attend its annual alumni awards ceremony, Dwyer said.
• Chet Guenther, a representative from the New York Public Interest Research Group, announced that NYPIRG’s SU and SUNY ESF chapter helped 838 local students register to vote during its voter registration drive last week. NYPIRG helped register over 10,000 students statewide, Guenther said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that the positions filled were newly created positions as part of a restructuring of the finance board. This was incorrect. The Daily Orange regrets this error.