The Student Association held elections for only the second time this semester on Monday night, electing students to the assembly, University Senate and Judicial Review Board.

One student was elected to the assembly, two students were elected to USen and one student was elected to the JRB. None of the elections were contested and the candidates generated little significant discussion among the assembly. All four elections took a total of less than 40 minutes.

Matthew VanDemark, a freshman music performance major, was elected to represent the College of Visual and Performing Arts. VanDemark said he wants to help the college find ways to offset the many additional costs that come with being a VPA student, including instruments and private lessons. He also wants to increase communication among the various divisions within VPA.

Though he doesn’t have any experience in politics, VanDemark said he’s eager to be involved in SA and voice the concerns of VPA students.

“I’m very head strong and passionate about my education,” he said. “So I figured that if I could have a voice in the government then I might as well use it.”

With VanDemark’s election, there are now 17 vacant assembly seats, two of them in VPA.

Two freshmen, Jack Harding, a political science and international relations major, and Jose Marrero, a biochemistry major, were both elected to serve in USen. Harding said he wanted to be in USen because not many students are aware of USen and what it does. He said he hopes to serve on USen’s Student Life Committee so he can provide a student perspective to faculty members.

Similarly, Marrero said he went to the last USen meeting and saw very few students in attendance. Too often, what happens at USen stays there and students never hear about it, he said. But students should be active in USen to voice their concerns and provide perspective, he said. Marrero said he hopes to serve on the Senate Research Committee.

In the night’s last election, Kendrea Cameron, a junior child and family studies major, was elected to the JRB. Cameron said she has wanted to get involved with SA but isn’t able to attend assembly meetings. Since she likes to be behind the scenes, Cameron said she thought the JRB would be a good spot for her.

Both Adrianna Kam, Board of Elections and Membership chair and Emily Ballard, JRB chair, interviewed Cameron about serving on the JRB. Kam said her and Ballard both gave Cameron a high recommendation because she really understands the SA constitution and bylaws. Cameron will be only the second member of the JRB, joining Ballard, Kam said.

Kam just became chair of the BEM last Monday, taking over for Dan Hernandez who had to step down due to scheduling reasons. Kam had her first BEM meeting as chair on Sunday and said the committee will begin reaching out to the various colleges and use their listservs to recruit new members. BEM is also working with the Public Relations Committee to encourage people to join SA, Kam added.

“We’ll also look into whether we want to do tabling,” Kam said. “We’ll see how far this goes and then see if we need to go the extra step.”

The next round of elections will take place on March 15, Kam said.

Additional business discussed:

• President Boris Gresely met with SU Food Services director David George and reported that, despite rumors to the contrary, Kimmel Dining Center will not be closing in the foreseeable future.
• Comptroller Patrick Douglas said there is $3,932.60 left of special programming money for this semester. He noted that he has already received more than $8,000 in requests this week, so this will likely be the last week to request special programming funds.
• The Special Committee on the Budget presented its initial recommendations for SA’s operating budget at the meeting. The committee will finalize its recommendations and present them to the assembly next week to be voted on.

Published on February 25, 2014 at 1:53 am

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta