The Syracuse University Student Association voted to fund a university-wide town hall for the future in an effort to address lingering questions regarding changes to SU policies over the summer at Monday night’s meeting.

The measure came after a summer of administrative changes that were largely laid out in emails to the student body, said SA President Ghufran Salih. She added that administrators and students at the town hall would discuss topics such as the first-year experience, the shared reading program and the conduct process for Theta Tau.

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Josh Shub-Seltzer, an SA representative from the College of Arts and Sciences and Daily Orange staff photographer, spearheaded the initiative. He said the administration has expressed interest in being part of the town hall.

“A lot of things were changed, and it’s just complicated and confusing,” Shub-Seltzer said during the meeting.

SA is hoping to split the $736 cost for the town hall with SU’s administration and the Graduate Student Organization.

Jack Wilson, the president of the GSO, sat in the back row of Maxwell Auditorium for the meeting. Wilson declined to comment on this story.

Shub-Seltzer said that the summer updates affect graduate students just as much as undergraduates. He added that he hopes that SA and GSO can continue a dialogue and build a partnership.

Debate over the $736 cost of the town hall persisted throughout the meeting, specifically regarding the fee of hosting it in the Panasci Lounge, which would cost more than holding it in a lecture hall.

The motion to allocate the $736 was passed by a vote of 10 in favor and five in opposition. This price will be cut for SA if SU’s administration and the GSO agree to help fund the initiative.

“It’s something that needs to happen as soon as possible,” Shub-Seltzer said. “This is something that can’t happen six months from now. If we’re going to talk about what happened over the summer, let’s talk about it now.”

Mental Health Awareness Week

SA continued to plan for the annual Mental Health Awareness Week, which will kick off on Oct. 1. The organization voted to allocate $2,600 for the events that week.

The week will consist of inflatable obstacle courses on the Quad, ribbon tying, music in Hendricks Chapel and events by mental health educators, among other things.

Half of the $2,600 will go toward the inflatables on the Quad. The other half will go toward two interpreters, more than 300 stress balls, coffee sleeves and ribbons, SA Vice President Kyle Rosenblum said during the meeting.

Other business:

Salih announced that SA purchased 1,000 tickets to the SU-Florida State University football game to give out to students looking to attend the game at no cost. Each ticket was bought for $2.50, and will be given out to students on Friday from noon to 2 p.m. on the Quad.

Five new members were elected to the SA’s finance board:

• Ryan Golden, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences
• Eduardo Gomez, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences
• Milton Crispin, a senior in the College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Melissa Damis, a junior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management
• Charley Dominguez, a senior in Whitman

Published on September 11, 2018 at 12:33 am

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326