SGI’s first floor meeting since spring break was held last week on Monday, March 5 and it covered many topics ranging from upcoming elections, to a new St. John’s University app.
Frank Obermeyer, president of SGI, began the meeting by announcing his plan to create a new SGI committee to oversee by-laws and the SGI constitution. A few tasks of this committee would be to oversee representative hour changes, look over the power to organize by-laws and academic forum by-laws.
An update on the Committee for Diversity and Inclusion was briefed after its first meeting was held on Wednesday Feb. 28, which had a total of eight attendees. Those in attendance discussed the definition of diversity and what diversity should look like at SJU. At the next meeting the committee plans to discuss its goals for the upcoming year.
As the spring semester begins to pick up, organizations are at the peak of their planning season. SGI Treasurer Teresa Ehiogu announced that 45 percent of this year’s academic budget has gone into use.
The SGI Senior Scholarship is now live, according to Senior Senator Brian Wagner. The scholarship will serve as a fundraising effort for the class of 2019.
Wagner also announced that SJU ties and bowties will soon be available in the Campus Bookstore. Bowties will be sold for $24.99 and regular ties will be sold for $29.99 each.
The budget committee announced one recent approved allocation for the Coptic Society Paint night, which requested $770 for catered Qdoba.
The discount program event that the committee had intended to hold, although canceled, is currently in the process of “being planned out for next year.”
With SGI elections just around the corner, $4,500 was spent on voting software for elections, which are set to take place on April 5 and 6.
SGI election campaigns began on March 5 and candidates are expected to present to attendees of the next SGI floor meeting on March 19.
The candidate debate will be held on March 22 and voting will take place two weeks later on April 5 and 6. This is the first year that SGI elections will see two full tickets and an independent since Obermeyer’s freshman year, according to SGI Secretary Alissa Santolo.
Alexander Cheung of the Research and Development Committee introduced the creation of a new SJU app that is expected to serve as a replacement for StormSync and SJUMobile. It will feature a social media interface as well as other customizable features and can be accessed from a mobile device or desktop. Although developed, no official launch date has been announced.
Obermeyer stated that the SGI eboard was to meet with Public Safety on Thursday, March 8 to discuss “any procedures or processes within their department,” as well as how Public Safety’s recent meetings with other organizations went.
Obermeyer then opened the floor to attendees to voice any questions or concerns that they would like the e-board to present at the meeting. Among the concerns raised was the creation of a subcommittee to meet regularly with Public Safety, the diversity of the Public Safety faculty and a sense of disconnect between Public Safety and students.
The next SGI floor meeting will be held on Monday, March 19.
