Comptroller Jeff Rickert, the first person to report at Student Association meetings each week, hopped out of his seat just after SA’s meeting began Monday night.

Rickert said he planned on putting together a presentation of jokes and funny memories from the semester and sessions past to begin. But he quickly decided against it.

‘A lot of our members now are too new, and they wouldn’t remember a lot of things,’ he said, which, in his thought process, went ‘from hilarious to funny to only me to offensive to everyone in the room.’

Normally assembled in Maxwell Auditorium, SA members gathered in event rooms alongside Schine Student Center’s Panasci Lounge on Monday night to conclude the end of session. The Assembly reflected on successes of the semester, as well as initiatives left undone.

This September, SA elected 23 new members to its Assembly and to the Finance Board. The group’s make-up consists mostly of freshmen. About a dozen of SA’s veteran members, some of them seniors who have been active in SA since their freshman year, were present, in addition to the new members.

‘I can definitely say it was bigger than any incoming group,’ said Jon Barnhart, SA president, referring to the newly-elected members. Barnhart said the influx of new representatives made SA more effective.

He said the new members have made for more diverse points of view in the association this semester.

‘It’s really good to have fresh faces in here because, too often, this association becomes about what we’ve done in the past, and the members end up being older,’ he said. ‘Having new people in helps us to get out of that rut.’

This semester, SA created the student advancement fund from 2.5 percent of the student activity fee. The fund would allow the association’s cabinet to allocate money based on student requests to sponsor services it sees as beneficial to students or as one-time-only opportunities. It also made University Union the official programming board of the university, giving the organization more autonomy in planning events.

SA also created a resolution calling for the creation of undergraduate majors geared toward political science, international relations and policy studies in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Another resolution called for the lone person convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, in which 35 Syracuse University students died, to be returned to prison.

Amy Snider, a sophomore representative from the College of Arts and Sciences and an Academic Affairs Committee member, said the committee worked hard to create more study space for students during this semester’s final exams. The Life Sciences Complex’s atrium will be open until 2 a.m. during finals week.

SA is also working to make SU a testing site for GRE and LSAT exams after hearing students’ frustration at having to find a way to get to Le Moyne College or Onondaga Community College to take the exams, she said.

‘We’ve really been trying to be the voice of students when it comes to academic issues,’ Snider said. ‘Within the next year, hopefully we’ll be a testing center.’

SA hopes to continue plans that were started this semester when it returns in the spring.

SA’s Student Engagement Committee had planned to put a free bus route from campus to Wegmans and Target and back at the start of the semester. But plans for the weekend route have stalled. Failed negotiations with Target after the store refused to pay part of the bus fee and a lapse in effort on the committee’s part have left the bus plan stagnant, said David Woody, chair of the committee.

Woody, who is stepping down from committee chair, said he still plans to see it through and is considering Walmart as an alternative to Target.

Another plan still in the works is SA’s smoke-free campus initiative. Neal Casey, president-elect and chair of the Student Life Committee, said the committee has focused on its initiative, and he has heard ‘overwhelming student support.’

The committee is also looking to distribute more trashcans across campus and start its new ride-sharing program, which has been in the works since the summer, he said.

Casey said members from the Residence Hall Association will be active in SA next semester, adding more diversity to the association.

‘That’s just going to offer us a different perspective, which will help SA do more of what it’s supposed to be doing: representing the students,’ he said.

After the committee chairs spoke, Barnhart, who was presiding over his last meeting, addressed SA members for more than a half-hour.

Staying late is something Barnhart and Casey have been doing throughout their involvement in SA, he said.

‘After SA meetings,’ Barnhart said, ‘Neal and I used to sit in the office until four or five in the morning, talking about SA and different political parties.’

He told SA members to ‘stay positive, be open-minded’ and ‘never, ever turn down an event where there’s free food.’

abknox@syr.edu

Published on December 6, 2010 at 12:00 pm