In a wide-ranging meeting on Monday night, the Student Association assembly discussed academic affairs initiatives, budget appeals and the results of two surveys.

Director of Academic Affairs Federico Vicente discussed four initiatives the committee has been working on in his first report of the semester.

The committee’s four main projects this semester have been creating more study spaces for students, creating library kiosks, revamping teacher evaluations and creating a Multi-Language Writing Center, Vicente said.

Expanding study space is the committee’s newest initiative, and so far the university has agreed to keep the Life Sciences building open until 2 a.m. during finals week. Committee members are talking to staff at Carnegie Library about keeping the library open late during finals week as well, Vicente said.

“We’re trying to increase the times study spaces are open around campus so students can have more spaces to study besides just Bird library,” he said.

The committee is also working on creating library kiosks that would allow students to reserve study spaces and access book reservations. In addition, the committee is looking into making teacher evaluations available to students so they can have more information about professors when choosing classes, Vicente said.

There has also been progress in creating a multi-language writing center, an initiative the committee has been working on since the beginning of the semester, Vicente said. The center would provide help to students writing essays in languages other than English.

Members of the committee have been meeting with the chairs of language departments about the center, Vicente said. Most of the chairs like the idea of the center, he said, but are concerned about logistics such as where the funding will come from.

Budget Appeals

Comptroller Patrick Douglas presented 32 funding bills to the assembly for approval following a week of appeals.

At the last week’s meeting, the assembly voted to fully fund, partially fund or deny funding for registered student organizations based on recommendations from the finance board. Organizations that were either partially funded or not funded had the chance to appeal the decision last week, but risked forfeiting any amount they were previously granted.

Of the 32 funding bills presented, 23 were either fully or partially funded, and nine were denied funding. Many of the organizations that received funding through appeals were denied funding last week because of missed budget meetings or other technicalities.

CitrusTV successfully appealed the Finance Board’s funding decision. The organization initially received only $54,488.51 of the $101,251.28 it requested but following an appeal received an additional $23,000 to fund new lights in its studio, Douglas said.

The assembly unanimously approved all 32 funding bills.

Self-Segregation and Diversity Survey

During his report, President Boris Gresely presented the findings of a self-segregation survey conducted by the Student Engagement Committee. One hundred twenty-three students took the survey. Some highlights of the survey include:

• 86 percent of students surveyed said the Syracuse University community is either “fairly diverse” or “very diverse.”
• 94 percent of students said they think self-segregation exists on campus
• 80 percent of students surveyed said they had an “average” or “broad” level of outreach to others in the community.
• 48 percent of those surveyed said students seeking comfort with similar people cause self-segregation.
• 46 percent of students surveyed said they would like to see facilitation of a structured opportunity for dialogue among different groups.

Other business discussed:

• Representative Eric Evangelista presented a report on the 2014 General Concern Survey. The survey addressed topics such as advising, food services and financial transparency and was filled out by 314 SU and SUNY-ESF students, Evangelista said. The purpose of the survey was to present a general overview of student concerns so that the assembly could address them with future initiatives, he said.
• The assembly approved a bill calling for New York state to legalize mixed martial arts. Assembly Representative Jihun Han, who introduced the bill, said MMA is a fast growing sport and New York is the only state that bans it.

Published on April 15, 2014 at 1:05 am

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta