After months of no representation, the first and only general assembly representative from the School of Information Studies was elected to the Student Association general assembly on Monday night.

Jason Quiles, a sophomore information technology major in the iSchool, was appointed at Monday’s SA meeting in Maxwell Auditorium. Board of Elections and Membership Chair Jennifer Bacolores said the last representative from the iSchool dropped out in March and that she’s very excited a new representative was elected.

“It’s definitely a different perspective. The iSchool is definitely a smaller school and it has a lot of people who are career-based,” Bacolores said. “We need representation from different schools and we definitely need new perspectives and students who are willing to work on different initiatives.”

To help with the representative selection process, Bacolores adopted a ratings system, which she uses to brief current SA members on the quality of a candidate before he or she is voted on.

Candidates can be rated “strongly recommended, recommended, recommended with caution and not recommended,” she said. She added that so far, she has not come across a candidate who she strongly recommends.

“A lot of our candidates that come forward definitely have potential, but when I speak to a candidate interested in joining SA, I look for real enthusiasm,” Bacolores said.

Bacolores said one of her main goals this semester is to prevent the election of “revolving door candidates” and instead elect people who will do a good job of representing their home college.

Four of the five candidates who ran for a seat in the general assembly on Monday night were elected, including candidates from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and the iSchool. The only student denied a seat was from the College of Arts and Sciences.

So far, the School of Architecture, the L.C. Smith College of Engineering, Newhouse and University College are the only colleges to have achieved full representation.

Once final vote counts were in, SA members shifted the focus of the meeting to student initiatives. Vice President Allie Curtis and Chief of Staff Janine Savage have been working together to organize a weeklong event called Impact Week to be held this November. Curtis said the event will provide many community service opportunities for SU students.

“The essence of Impact Week is being able to bridge the gap between being a student and being a community member,” Curtis said.

Although many SA members are trying to promote campus activities, SA Comptroller Stephen DeSalvo said SU student organizations have not been applying for special programming funding.

“(Funding requests) have been unusually low,” DeSalvo said.

SA currently has just under $100,000 available for student organizations that apply for funding and get approved. So far, a little less than $3,000 has been awarded, DeSalvo said.

DeSalvo has also drafted a bill that clearly defines how student organizations can move up and down the financial tier system. The finance board uses the tier system to determine how much money a student organization can apply for.

DeSalvo said organizations hosting events that don’t meet attendance standards, among other measures, could potentially be moved down in the tier system. Organizations that wish to be moved up must have evidence of past success, among other regulations. DeSalvo plans to clarify the new regulations at the next meeting.

In other business, Chair of Student Engagement Sean Dinan proposed subsidizing basketball and football tickets for part-time University College students who currently don’t receive a discount and don’t pay a student activities fee.

The next SA meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Panasci Lounge in the Schine Student Center due to a scheduling conflict.

Published on September 18, 2012 at 1:15 am

Contact Anna: aegiles@syr.edu