This week’s SGA meetings centered around the upcoming executive board elections, as well as whether or not seniors would be allowed to vote in student group elections. The meeting also touched upon recent turmoil surrounding the union dispute between campus food provider Aramark and the University. Regarding the Aramark union dispute, President of SGA Mark Dirzulaitis felt that the SGA should take a neutral position in the matter.
“I suggest, we as the SGA don’t get involved in this matter and endorse a stance of fair contract. It is not the students’ job to get involved in a labor dispute. We should be focusing on more important things and on things over which we have control.”
At the forefront of the meeting was the upcoming SGA executive board election which is scheduled to run from this Thursday to Sunday. A turnout of one thousand five hundred voters is expected.
There are two tickets running this year. The first ticket has slated junior Kirk Sabnani, junior Scott Barrett, junior Nick Trenton and junior Annie Scavelli running for president, vice president, treasurer and secretary respectively. The second ticket has junior Ardi Mendoza, sophomore Wyatt Larkin, junior Joanna Gawlik and freshman Alex Dash.
In addition, there are two independent candidates running for treasurer this year, junior T.J. Bozada and junior Stephanie Valarezo.
Further on, an extensive dialogue ensued; regarding the right for seniors to vote within student groups. This was presented in the form of two bills by senior class President Josh Ayal. The first was a radical bill which proposed that a student group which did not allow seniors to vote would be denied funding.
The second bill proposed a more relaxed approach wherein a group which did not allow seniors to vote could only get the minimum amount of funding as opposed to another group that allowed all of its members to vote.
If the bill does get passed, he believes that student groups that bar seniors from voting shall see a shift towards a more engaged student membership.
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