2023-11-21 SGA Senate Meeting Minutes

November 21, 2023
2:15 pm, Forum 3-130, Downtown Campus Room 200B, Zoom

In Attendance

Student Senators

  • Senator Mohamed Souhail
  • Senator Jemeah Scott
  • Senator Giomer Garcia-Maldonado
  • Senator Thomas Adams
  • Senator Ashley Wrobeh
  • Senator Loritea Ellis
  • Senator Alicia Crimmins
  • Senator Daniel Kalumbwe

Election Coordinator

  • Naz Barmak

Historian

  • Paula Balow

President

  • Joseph Leichtner

Vice President of Governance

  • Angelo Romero

Vice President of Downtown

  • Mandie McGinnis

Treasurer

  • Zeynep Guney

Chief of Staff

  • Ava Allen

Secretary of Governance

  • Ivy Zin

Secretary of Staff

  • Gavin Harrigan

Student Trustee

  • Ana Santos

Office of Student Life

  • Advisor: Jodi Oriel
  • Faculty Advisor: Mark Sample

Visitors

  • Dana Williams – MCC Student
  • Aidan Zajkowski – Student Music Association
  • Amy Greer – Student Rights and Responsibilities Office
  • Taylor Snyder – SADHA
  • Emily Oswald – SADHA
  • Crystal Morici – SADHA
  • Alexandria Fioravanti – SADHA
  • Bryan Sebunya – MCC Student

Minutes

Call to Order (2:15 pm)

  1. Roll Call (see attendance above)
    Vice President of Governance Romero called for a roll call to start the senate meeting.
  2. Land Acknowledgement
  3. Approval of Minutes
    1. Vice President of Governance Romero called for a motion to approve the November 14, 2023, Student Government Association minutes.
    2. Senator Adams so moved, seconded by Senator Scott.
    3. A vote was taken.
    4. To be resolved, the Monroe Community College Student Government Association approves the November 14, 2023, minutes as written.

Speak to the Senate

  1. No one spoke to the Senate.

Reports

  1. President Leichtner

    President Leichner has been corresponding with Deirdre Bartholomew, the Sodexo Dining General Manager regarding setting up a meeting time to discuss the possible institution of a Food Transfer Network at MCC. That meeting has now been scheduled for Nov. 30th, and President Leichtner is looking forward to a fruitful discussion. On November 15th, President Leichtner attended Student Trustee Ana Santos’s resident assistant event at Canal Hall. It was a very fun and engaging event and had great attendance. It was a painting event in which students were able to paint mini-canvasses and mini-figurines.

  2. Vice President Romero

    From Friday, November 17th to Sunday, November 19th, Vice President Romero attended the SUNY Student Assembly Conference in Syracuse, New York, with President Leichtner, Student Trustee Santos, Treasurer Guney, Vice President of Downtown McGinnis, Secretary of Governance Zin, Secretary of Staff Harrigan, Club & Orgs Senator Kalumbwe, Virtual Campus Senator Ellis, Student Relations Senator Adams, Historian Barlow, Student life Advisor Oriel, and Faculty Advisor Sample. President Leichtner and Vice President Romero would serve as Voting Delegates voting on amending the SUNY SA Bylaws regarding committees such as the Standing Committee Rules Committee, Community College Committee, University College Committee, Doctoral Degree Granting Institutions (Undergraduate Division) Committee, Doctoral Degree Granting Institutions (Graduate Division) Committee, and the Colleges of Technology and Agriculture Committee. Another Resolution had to deal with maintaining the SUNY Snapshot, how the Chairperson will work at other conferences, and a resolution to create and maintain group chats with other SGAs in the SUNY System for other SGA Members to communicate with others and mandate it. He would also listen to a few speeches from speakers at the conference, like Assemblymember William Magnarelli. He would talk about the SUNY System and answer any questions students had to ask about specific bills being pushed. SUNY Trustee Eunice Lewin would discuss Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in leadership. She would talk about her background and how she got there. They would also hold Breakout sessions and meetings to learn about specific resources. Some related to Leadership in Community Service and how caring for a good community is essential. Some other students brought up good ideas for possible future ideas. Another talked about Mental Health Awareness, where I learned more about the resources available to students and Faculty, the use of safe language, and how to recognize it. T.A.L.E is one of them. It stands for Talk, Actions, Life Situations, and Emotions. I would also attend the Community College Caucus Meeting with Chrissy Fogal, the Faculty Council of Community Colleges and Math Professor President at MCC. She would talk about issues and answer questions that students have. Vice President Romero and the rest of SGA Attended the bowling night, where other students would play to have fun after a long day. Before that, we had a nice family dinner, with Treasurer Guney picking an excellent place for dinner. There was also game night, where we played board games. There was also time for networking with others, getting to know more about different colleges and how their SGA Works and networking. He would also like to say DEI is very important and that no matter what your background is, like your race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, and disabilities, we don’t exclude any single one of them. To him, that was one of the most important lessons he learned on the trip, even though he knew it was already significant. This was a fantastic event; he hopes to attend the next one and have another team trip.

  3. Vice President of Downtown McGinnis

    On Tuesday, November 14th Vice President McGinnis attended the third clubs and organization meeting of the semester with SGA. Vice President McGinnis is so proud of all the incredible work each club and organization is doing in and around the MCC (Monroe Community College) community. Wednesday, November 15th, the Disability Awareness Club held its fall social. Their fall social is an annual event that the club hosts, which includes everyone’s favorite Just Dance, music, storytelling by Amar Atwood, crafts, food, and treat bags to bring home. She would like to thank the Disability Awareness Club, for what they do for student life on the Downtown Campus. Also on the 15th, Vice President McGinnis, Historian Barlow, along with other TRIO students were celebrated by TRIO with the presentation of their graduation stoles and TRIO certificates. The TRIO Student Support Services program offers a comprehensive set of services to improve academic achievement, retention, graduation, and transfer to four-year institutions. Thank you, TRIO, for supporting her in successfully completing her program at MCC. She would like to say thank Chris Powell, TRIO advisor, for her invaluable wisdom, support, and encouragement. Lastly, on Friday, November 17th Student Trustee Santos, President Leichter, Vice President of Governance Romero, Vice President of Downtown McGinnis, Secretary of Governance Zin, Treasurer Guney, Senators, Adams, Ellis, and Kalumbwe, with Secretary of Staff Harrigan and Historian Barlow along with advisors Oriel and Sample traveled to Syracuse, NY to attend the State University of New York Student Assemble fall 2023 conference. Vice President McGinnis will provide her full SUNY SA reporting at the November 28th Public Senate meeting.

  4. Treasurer Guney

    From November 17 through 19th, during the weekend, treasurer Guney attended the SUNYSA fall conference. It was a valuable experience for me to represent MCC and its students and make observations, where SGA members of the SUNY schools came together and where each voter represented their student body. The relations between two-year colleges and four-year universities and possible developments were discussed. In addition to conferences about what kind of attitude leaders should display as representatives, presentations and speeches on diversity, equity, and inclusion were also held. These seminars positively influenced and developed student leaders’ character, views, and attitudes. Ideas were put forward to increase student communication, to strengthen, heal, and support students, also resolutions were made for the student body and schools. We hope that such conferences will primarily help student leaders representing the student body and the school to develop and be more helpful, and to keep the functioning and systems of schools – if everything is in order – or to make decisions to improve and recreate them, to add them to the law and to implement them.

  5. Secretary of Governance Zin

    Last week, Secretary of Governance Zin attended the student trustee Ana’s event at Canal Hall. The event was adorable and left it as a beautiful memory. Last weekend, she had a wonderful opportunity to attend the SUNY Assembly in Syracuse with her fellow SGA members. It was an incredible experience for her to meet with other student leaders from different campuses and to network with each other. She attended the mental awareness and public speaking breakout session at the conference and got the big takeaways from them. She also had an opportunity to listen to Trustee Lewin’s speech and learned a lot to take as a student leader for her from the speech. Also, Secretary Zin finished the last meeting’s minutes to provide it to the public

  6. Chief of Staff Allen

    Chief of Staff Allen has no report for this week.

  7. Secretary of Staff Harrigan

    Secretary of Staff Harrigan went to the Conference back in Syracuse with other SGA members, President Leichtner, Vice President of Governance Romero, Vice President of Downtown McGinnis, Treasurer Guney, Secretary of Governance Zin, Virtual Campus Senator Ellis, Student Relation Senator Adams, Club and Organization Senator Kalumbwe, Student Trustee Santos, Student Life Advisor Oriel and Faculty Advisor Sample. He had fun and he got to meet new other people. Also, he learned new things in workshops and learned about the environment and how it is causing and affecting the global climate. Especially, the weather in New York, and he knew that SUNY was trying to solve this with their solutions and recycling from the conference. Moreover, he has learned about mental health and ways to cope with stress and anxiety.

  8. Diversity Senator Scott

    Over this past week, Senator Scott drafted the flyer for an event sponsored by the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Club as well as the Student Government Association. This event is gathering to call for a ceasefire for the Israel-Palestine war and will be a space for students to engage and create solidarity to advocate for peace. The event will be held in the R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center on November 29th at noon, so Senator Scott urges all students and faculty interested in this topic to get involved and collaborate as much as possible.

  9. Health & Wellness Senator Wrobeh

    Health and Wellness Senator Wrobeh has no reports for this week.

  10. Student Relations Senator Adams

    On Friday Senator Adams went to the open house event and talked with some of the people at the booths. On the weekend, he went with members of SGA to the Fall 2023 SUNY SA Conference. While not being able to vote there, he did learn a lot in terms of procedure and what other colleges were successful in and struggling in. Throughout the Conference, he spoke with members of other colleges and provided solutions to their issues. Senator Adams also spoke specifically with Christine Woods about the possibility of bringing new programs to the SUNY colleges, and she was open to the ideas that Adams provided.

  11. Election Coordinator Barmak

    During the past week, Election Coordinator Barmak drafted the resolution for the $6,000 donation for SADHA.  She also worked with the Vice President of the Downtown Campus, Mandie on finishing the flyers for the donation of scarf, gloves, socks and mittens for DWIGHT.  She would like to spread the word about the donation of new scarf, hats, mittens, and socks until December 8th with drop-off locations at the Downtown campus in front of Student Services on the 3rd floor, and in the Brighton campus in front of Student Life, Library, and Financial Aid office.  We hope to receive the donations and distribute them this coming December 9th week.

  12. Athletic Senator Souhail

    Athletic Senator Souhail has no reports for this week.

  13. Virtual Campus Senator Ellis

    On November 13th, 2023, at 12:00 pm Senator Ellis met with the Future Downtown Campus Steering Committee and the meeting Summary was regarding Student services in DC with insights from Kim, staffing changes and services at a Downtown Campus, Budget and staffing for academic and student services, College campus development and student outcomes, Student enrollment and course offerings at MCC. On November 16th, 2023, at 12:00 pm Virtual Senator Ellis met with the Vice President of Downtown McGinnis to help with the Snack & Chat SGA Event. Where we want to reach out to students and answer any questions they have about the school, or Student Government, while also having snacks to munch on. Later that day at 2:00 pm Senator Ellis and Vice President McGinnis met with Kim DeLarge Kimberly Director, Academic and Student Affairs about an update about the things that were discussed at the SGA meeting that took place on 11/14/23. Kim has expressed her intentions to fully help SGA with whatever she could. 

  14. Residence Hall Senator Crimmins

    Residence Hall Senator Crimmins has no reports for this week.

  15. Club and Organization Senator Garcia-Maldonado

    Senator Garcia-Maldonado is happy to be back to the meetings after a period of being sick that kept him away from the past meetings.

  16. Club and Organization Senator Kalumbwe

    Club and Organization Senator Kalumbwe has no reports for this week.

New Business

  1. Items (requires a senate vote)
    1. Resolution for the approval of the funding request to SADHA.
      Resolved, the Monroe Community College Student Government Association approved SADHA’s financial request for $6000 for an excellent opportunity for 29 students to reduce their cost for the National Board Review classes and State Licensure.
      Vice President Romero called for a motion to approve the resolution.
      Senator Adams so moved, second by Senator Scott.
      Discussion: The SADHA completed the request fund and met the standards of both the Student Government Association and the Office of Student Life and Leadership.
      A vote was taken. The resolution passed.
      Be it resolved, the senate present and voting that the Student Government Association allocate up to $6000 to the SADHA at Monroe Community College.
    1. Resolution for the approval of the funding request to the Student Music Association.
      Resolved, the Monroe Community College Student Government Association approved the Student Music Association’s financial request for $6000 for the Carnegie Hall trip on June 14th, 2024, in New York City.
      Vice President Romero called for a motion to approve the resolution.
      Senator Adams so moved, second by Senator Crimmins.
      Discussion: The Student Music Association completed the request fund and met the standards of both the Student Government Association and the Office of Student Life and Leadership.
      A vote was taken. The resolution passed.
      Be it resolved, the senate present and voting that the Student Government Association allocate up to $6000 to the Student Music Association at Monroe Community College.

Discussion Items

  1. There were no discussion items.

Old Business

  1. There was no old business.

Questions and Comments

  1. There were no questions or comments.

Adjournment

  1. Vice President Romero called for a motion for adjournment.
  2. Meeting was adjourned at 2:40 pm.

Executive Session

Respectfully submitted,
Ivy Zin
Secretary of Governance