Student Congress met on Monday for its last meeting of the semester. The Student Congress schedule for spring 2017 was approved, the Student Association (SA) vice president for academic affairs (VPAA) election was discussed and the Judicial Board’s decisions on two pieces of legislation were disclosed.
During the public comment session, Bella Rubinton, a junior double-majoring in Judaic studies and music, announced that she was withdrawing from the VPAA election and would be supporting Jonathan Tobin, a senior double-majoring in history and philosophy, politics and law. Tobin was originally not approved for the ballot, but was later added after a decision by the Judicial Board validated that he got his signature sheet in on time.
Tobin spoke briefly during public comment, emphasizing his position as an SA outsider who is willing to learn the inner workings on the VPAA’s office.
SA President Nicholas Ferrara, a senior majoring in political science, reflected on last week’s contentious Student Congress meeting during his remarks.
“Regardless of what we all thought, we should all be thankful that Student Congress is able to express itself in this manner,” Ferrara said.
He praised Congress for being active participants in relevant issues on campus, noting that Congress is vital to addressing student issues.
“In years past we have had congresses that didn’t do all that much this year; you all ask a whole lot of questions and they’re intelligent questions and they actually make the SA a whole lot better,” Ferrara said.
Jesse Wong, chair of the Planning, Research and Elections committee (PRE) and a senior majoring in industrial and systems engineering, said that PRE has remedied the problem regarding ballot emails from last year, where the emails were unclearly labeled and student voting rates were low. The emails will have the text “Special VPAA election” in the subject field.
Tosin Ayegbusi, a senior double-majoring in economics and philosophy, politics and law and the vice-chair of the Internal Affairs Committee, presented the Judicial Board’s decision on two cases.
First, they presented legislation from two months ago belonging to Adam Wilkes, the former VPAA a junior double-majoring in economics and sociology, pertaining to the overall purpose of education at Binghamton University. It was rejected by a majority of the Judicial Board members on the basis that it was too broad and therefore potentially in violation of the SA Constitution.
Next, legislation proposed by Raul Cepin, a senior double-majoring in Latin American and Caribbean Area studies, advocating for a black leadership conference sponsored by the SA was voted down by the Judicial Board. Ayegbusi said this was due to two primary factors: the first was that the SA cannot discriminate based on race and a conference exclusively for one race was viewed as violating this policy. Additionally, an item in the legislation that outlined a zero-tolerance policy for student leaders who do not react to instances of discrimination by people working beneath them was rejected as a violation of SA rules.
“Some people [on the Judicial Board] believe that the legislation, at some points, could have violated the Constitution,” Ayegbusi said.
Jermel McClure, Jr., the vice president for multicultural affairs and a junior majoring in political science, supported Cepin’s legislation and said that next semester they would be following up with changes to comply with the Judicial Board’s suggestion.
“We understand that I could have been perceived as exclusionary by J-Board,” McClure said. “So we are going to go back to the drawing board and tweak the legislation for next semester.”