While the goal of the Student Group Council is to facilitate interaction between organizations and the Student Association, the first session, held last night, focused mainly on creating cohesion and a common message about the Old University Union renovations from student groups to the administration.
SA officials began the meeting, which was moved to the Old Union Hall from the student assembly meeting room to accommodate the large turn-out, by reviewing the revised bylaws which govern student group conduct at Binghamton University. But the meeting soon became an opportunity for students to voice their opinions on the revamping of the Old Union to each other and to Rodger Summers, the vice president for student affairs.
Students seemed no more satisfied with the pending renovations to the Old Union than they were at a forum held last week ‘ and Summers urged them to organize and continue pushing for their demands.
Before the Old Union debate, SA officials ‘ including Richard Marmolejos, Christopher Powell, Joe Danko and David Belsky ‘ reviewed changes and procedures with group representatives.
‘The goal of these meetings is to provide a forum for communication in every which direction,’ said Belsky, the current executive vice president.
Belsky and Danko, the EVP-elect, went on to describe the procedures for next year, when the meetings will be monthly, in addition to committee meetings during which student groups will be categorized according to their organization.
The committees are designed to improve and organize the communication of student group opinions on different issues, Danko said.
As part of the communication between the Assembly and the student groups, Belsky and Danko reviewed the changes made to the student group bylaws last Monday by a committee of student group representatives and SA members ‘ including the change that will allow political groups on campus to have funding as of next year.
‘When we debated the pros and cons of funding political groups, one of the main points that we focused on was that if we allowed religious groups to be funded and spend their money on non-religious items, then who were we to say that political groups could not be funded and allowed to spend their money on non-political items?’ Belsky said.
A change was also made to the Non-Discriminatory Policy, an old bylaw that required organizations to allow any student to run for an executive board position within a group, despite the person’s background and affiliation. Although groups are still required to allow all students to join as members, a part of the law has been altered.
‘It was decided in a Supreme Court case that organizations could not be forced to allow people who do not share in their organization’s ideals to run for executive board,’ Belsky said.
Similarly, a change to the policies concerning the executive boards of student groups now requires that the president, vice president and treasurers of a group be undergraduate students, although one-fifth of the executive board may still be graduate students. Additionally, the above offices may each be held by one person.
Following the ‘information session,’ students had the chance to speak in a ‘controlled discussion’ with Summers concerning the developing plans for the refurbishments to the Union.
The project has drawn controversy because some students feel that they have no input on the plans, and that the administration refuses to give them an opportunity for such contribution.
‘Most importantly I need a couple of people to take notes on important issues that I need to take back to the Space Council and to the president and say ‘Here is what students gave me as some of their concerns and I want you to see what they’re saying,’ Summers said. The Space Council is responsible for presenting the renovation plans to President Lois B. DeFleur.
Summers said that he was pushing for ‘more student space,’ and told students that any requests they wished to send to the Space Council should be forwarded to him, assuring students the information would get passed on.
‘So we have a sense in student affairs of what the needs are, and what I want you to understand is that I’m not backing down from my responsibility as vice president ‘,’ Summers said.