May 5, 2026<\/p>\n
2:15 pm, Forum (Room 3-139A), Downtown Campus Room 200B, Zoom<\/p>\n
Student Senators<\/strong><\/p>\n President<\/strong><\/p>\n Vice President of Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n Vice President of Downtown Campus Student Trustee<\/strong><\/p>\n Chief of Staff<\/strong><\/p>\n Office of Student Life<\/strong><\/p>\n Visitors<\/strong><\/p>\n Call to Order (2:16 pm)<\/p>\n Good afternoon everyone, This past week has been incredibly rewarding. On Monday, March 27th, I had the opportunity to attend the Chancellor\u2019s Award Ceremony in Albany alongside members of my team. I am beyond honored to have been recognized as a recipient of this distinguished award.<\/p>\n In addition, on Tuesday, March 28th, I presented my research on the lasting effects of the transatlantic slave trade at this year\u2019s Scholars\u2019 Day. This was a valuable experience that I truly enjoyed, especially being able to engage with and learn from the research of my peers.<\/p>\n Lastly, that same day, my team, and I attended our final ELT meeting. We shared updates on the work the Student Government has been doing and how our initiatives align with the Strategic Plan, Vision 2027. As always, I appreciate the opportunity to participate in shared governance and be part of these important conversations. With the semester coming to an end, the weeks have been filled with emotions and reflection. This week was especially meaningful, as we attended our last ELT meeting of the semester. It really made me realize how far we\u2019ve come, and I can honestly say I am so happy with how this semester has gone. On Monday, we traveled to Albany for the SUNY Chancellor\u2019s Award, which was an incredible experience. I am truly grateful for this opportunity and proud of this accomplishment, but what made it even more special was being able to share that moment with my team and my friends. I am especially proud of Lisa, Parker, and Abigail \u2014 celebrating alongside you made the experience even more meaningful. Throughout the week, I also want to highlight how proud I am of President Burno and Chief of Staff Pottinger for their amazing accomplishments at Scholars Day. Their dedication, hard work, and passion truly show in everything they do, and it is inspiring to see them represent our team and our campus at such a high level. On Thursday, we continued our work on the clothing drive, and with the support of the SSPC, we were able to sort through all of the donated items. It was incredibly rewarding to see the results of our efforts, especially knowing that we were able to collect clothing from both the Brighton and Downtown campuses. I am very proud of what we accomplished together and grateful for the collaboration that made it possible. On Friday, we took time as a team to celebrate our friend Stan, who is retiring after 32 years at MCC. It was a very special and emotional moment to recognize everything he has done for the campus and the impact he has had on so many students and staff over the years. While we are happy for him as he begins this new chapter, he will truly be missed. His dedication, kindness, and presence have meant so much to all of us, and it was an honor to celebrate him together as a team.<\/p>\n Overall, this week was full of meaningful moments, accomplishments, and reflection. As the semester comes to a close, I feel incredibly proud of our team and everything we have achieved together.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t No report for this week.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t Over this past week, I was Honored to receive the SUNY Chancellor\u2019s Award for Student Excellence (CASE) in Albany, NY – the highest honor a SUNY student can achieve, recognizing outstanding achievement in academics, leadership, campus involvement, and community impact.<\/p>\n Selected as one of just 205 students across the SUNY system to receive this award, I\u2019m incredibly grateful to be recognized among such inspiring peers. This honor reflects a commitment to excellence not only in the classroom, but through leadership, service, and meaningful contributions to the campus and broader community. Let us not forget – this recognition is a shared accomplishment in which I could not have done this alone and being a SUNY student is a blessing in itself.<\/p>\n Had the absolute honor and privilege to be a volunteer for the 28th annual Gold Star Gala Presented by M&T Bank at the Country Club of Rochester! With a fun theme – Meet you in Monaco F1! Huge thank you to the MCC Foundation for making all these huge diner events possible and would also not be possible without the charitable donors to our institution – but specifically for student scholarships! Also huge thanks to Karen Shaw, Gretchen Wood, Doug Emblidge, Robin and Tim Wentworth, Lisa and Virgil Joseph, the amazing staff, volunteer team and many more! MCC is greater each and every year because of events and charitable donors that believe in higher education and student success. Absolutely blown away with exceeding our dollar amount goal with raising over $400,000 (net) in scholarships for students!<\/p>\n Pivoting to Phi-Theta-Kappa, the honor society I\u2019ve been in for almost a year now, I\u2019ve finally been inducted in the ceremony with a few of my friends on the 22nd.<\/p>\n In addition, I attended Scholars day speeches and the reception where I was happy to uplift student insights and dedicated research they have worked so hard on. Congratulations Chief of Staff Pottinger and President Burno for both absolutely killing it and winning awards and scholarship!<\/p>\n On Wednesday, I had the chance to talk to students at the downtown campus on their concerns, what I can do to assist gaps in their student experience and educating them on SGA elections. Speaking of SGA elections, last Thursday I was blessed to be able to participate in the \u201cmeet the candidates\u201d event where we talk to the student body about elections and hear about student issues and how we can assist with those issues. I spent past the entire timeframe in which we had the tabling event where I could not catch a breath when communicating with students. These conversations are the ones that are worth listening to and I wish I could\u2019ve stayed another few hours is I didn\u2019t have plans with a student to grow their film skills by helping me out with a campaign video for president of SGA.<\/p>\n What saddens me is this is one of the last reports of the academic year which means\u2026 well\u2026 I soon won\u2019t be working with the majority of this group next year and quite possibly ever again in the academic setting. I love each and every person in this row, and all of you by far have made my MCC student experience like no other. This team has given me the opportunity to succeed and grow into a totally different person than before because everyone sitting beside me are people I look up to. From the long nights in the SGA office, balancing coursework and all the events on campus, traveling to Albany, Syracuse, NYC and DC; the time spent with this group will be missed. I may seem like a \u201cknow it all\u201d at times, but newsflash, I don\u2019t and I will continue to learn from you guys until the end of the year and the team next year. But in all seriousness, this ending of a chapter is a situation where you are sad because it is ending but happy because it happened. It\u2019s also going to be weird going from so much intense measurable work to lounging in the sun too but I will not be c<\/p>\n Thank you SGA members, faculty, staff, and our amazing advisors for one of the best\/fulfilling years of my life. Can\u2019t wait to continue to grow as a person each and everyday regardless of what the initial path might look like.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t Good afternoon everyone, On Monday, April 27th, I had the opportunity to travel to Albany to receive the SUNY Chancellor\u2019s Award alongside several members of my team. It is truly an honor to serve the student body, and this recognition was a great opportunity to reflect on the work we have done. I am proud of the accomplishments of my team and the impact they will continue to make moving forward.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, April 28th, I participated in the 18th Annual Scholars\u2019 Day, where I had the opportunity to present research on a topic I have been following closely, microchips and the impact they have on our society, as well as where we would be without them. It was a great experience to share my work and engage in academic discussions with others.<\/p>\n On Thursday, April 30th, I assisted in organizing the clothing collected from the clothing drive by sorting items into designated bins to ensure an efficient distribution process. Then, earlier today, they were distributed from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM on the Brighton Campus in the Atrium. It was great to see the initiative come full circle and provide direct support to members of our campus community.<\/p>\n There will also be an opportunity for students on the Downtown Campus to participate. We will be distributing clothing on Thursday, May 7th from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM in the Multipurpose Room. I encourage anyone who is interested to stop by.<\/p>\n Elections began yesterday, Monday, May 4th, and we have a strong group of candidates running for positions including President, Vice President, Student Trustee, and Vice President of the Downtown Campus. Voting will continue through Thursday, May 7th.<\/p>\n I would like to wish all of the candidates the best of luck. Regardless of the outcome, each of you has shown great initiative and leadership by stepping forward to run. I encourage anyone who has not yet voted to take the time to meet the candidates, learn more about who they are, and understand what they represent before casting your vote.<\/p>\n Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t No report for this week.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t This week, I had the opportunity to attend the SUNY Chancellor\u2019s Awards ceremony in Albany in support of members of our Student Government Association team. It was a great experience to represent our college at a statewide level and to celebrate the achievements of students who have demonstrated excellence in leadership, academics, and service. Being present at the ceremony allowed me to support our fellow SGA members while also gaining a broader perspective on student leadership across the SUNY system. It was inspiring to see the recognition given to students who are making meaningful contributions to their campuses and communities. Overall, this experience reinforced the importance of student involvement and leadership, and I am proud to be part of an organization that actively supports and uplifts its members.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t No report for this week.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t I attended our ELT meeting where we shared reports and updates on what we\u2019ve been doing across campus, and they also provided us with updates and support from their side. It was a really helpful space to stay connected and make sure we\u2019re all on the same page with what\u2019s happening, while also making sure student involvement is being recognized. I\u2019ve also been preparing for our last Club and Organization meeting, which is today, and it honestly feels really bittersweet. I didn\u2019t expect this experience to mean as much as it does, but getting to work with so many different clubs and meeting so many people has really stuck with me. It\u2019s kind of crazy realizing this is the last one. I\u2019m really grateful for everyone I\u2019ve had the chance to connect with throughout this role. As we\u2019re wrapping everything up, I just want to wish everyone the best of luck on finals because I know how overwhelming this time can be, and a huge congratulations to everyone graduating, you made it through and that\u2019s something to be really proud of.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t Hello everyone, the semester is wrapping up here and although i’ve only been apart of SGA a short while, I just wanted to say that I think we’ve all shown growth here. I won’t give too long a speech on my reflections of being apart of SGA, but I did just want to highlight the coming of the end of our team here. As far as my potential future position is concerned, I look foward to working with the next SGA president and promoting more volunteer oppurtunities both within and outside of SGA. Other than that, I don’t have any particular athletic matters to cover here, with the execption that I look forward to swimming next semester and playing basketball over the summer. Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Respectfully submitted<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" May 5, 2026 2:15 pm, Forum (Room 3-139A), Downtown Campus Room 200B, Zoom In Attendance Student Senators Senator Maddilyn Keech Senator Elle Reeves Senator John Breedy Senator Rusty Smetanyak Senator Bodhi Blaska President Lisa Burno Vice President of Governance Margherita Rizzuti Vice President of Downtown Campus Anthony Flanders Student Trustee Parker Werven Chief of Staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meeting-minutes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/sga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\t
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Minutes<\/h2>\n
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\nVice President Rizutti called for a roll call to start the senate meeting.<\/li>\n\t\n\t
Reports<\/h3>\n
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\nOverall, it was a very productive and rewarding week, and I\u2019m grateful for the opportunities to grow, represent our team, and celebrate the work we\u2019ve accomplished together.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\t
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\nThis past week has been very eventful, as I have been balancing academic responsibilities while preparing for finals.<\/p>\n
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\nFor those of you who don’t know, the next fall semester, I am looking to be the next Vice President. Seeing as i’m running unopposed, it seems all but likely that I will asume the position.<\/p>\nOld Business<\/h3>\n
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New Business<\/h3>\n
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Speak to the Senate<\/h3>\n
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Adjournment<\/h3>\n
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