The first meeting of the 51st Session of the Student Association held Monday night was highlighted by a special announcement from Associate Dean of Students Juanita Williams and the appointments and elections of representatives to various administrative positions ranging from the vice presidency to the finance board.’I’m really excited to be here,’ said newly elected SA President Ryan Kelly as he began Monday night’s meeting.

After quickly reminding SA members that only those who had been sworn in could participate in the voting, Kelly handed the meeting over to Williams to speak to the assembly about the upcoming Student Leadership Summit.

During break, a number of student leaders received e-mails asking them to reply with the three most pressing issues on campus, Williams said. The top three responses were diversity on campus, the presence of freshmen on South Campus and campus safety. The Student Leadership Summit will be held Jan. 31, Williams said. Chancellor Nancy Cantor will speak as well as three different student leaders on the issues facing campus.

Student leaders will be seated at tables to discuss critical issues on campus. An SA member will be at each table to serve as a ‘scribe’ to document the ideas discussed.’This is something that is coming together well,’ Williams said. ‘We think this is the first time we’ve gotten a group together that is so involved on campus.’

The interest for attending the summit has been substantial, Williams said. She noted that the inclusion of a free basketball ticket and an invitation to the reception helped generate interest.

‘I hope it’s annual. I hope every year students will look forward to hearing from the chancellor and each other,’ Williams said to conclude her announcement.

Kelly passed out a sheet for representatives to sign up to serve as scribes for the event and expressed his hope that a large proposal would be generated by the summit. He hopes SA will be able to bring the student leaders together for an open forum later this year. During his first weekly report, Kelly brought up the recent attendance of SA representatives at a Syracuse City Council meeting during which the off-campus housing density problem was addressed. Kelly said he hoped SA would be able to represent Syracuse University at future meetings.Following his report, Kelly appointed Marlene Goldenberg as vice president of the 51st Session and Jess Oster as head of SA’s public relations activities.

Board of Elections Chair Crystal Beavers took the podium to preside over the assembly’s election of new representatives and finance board members.

Sophomore political science major Jorge Rodriguez was elected to the assembly, filling an Arts and Sciences seat. Rodriguez said he was most interested in the issue of academic integrity. Junior philosophy, English and textual studies and African American studies major Bennison Ntsakey was elected as a student representative to the University Senate.

‘I think my energy’s best served if I’m a part of student life,’ Ntsakey said when asked which committee he was most interested in being a part of.Sophomore accounting and finance majors Troy Lee and Stephanie King, as well as Ntsakey and freshman advertising and marketing major Rachel Slone were all elected to serve on the Finance Board. They filled four of the eight remaining seats on the 10-person board.

The final appointments of the meeting were for parliamentarian and recorder. Sophomore Neville Williams and junior Marco Markov were nominated for parliamentarian, but before the process could begin, Kelly brought to attention that Williams had not yet been sworn in and was therefore not a voting member of the assembly.

A motion to have Beavers officially swear in Williams, and any other present representative who had not yet been sworn in, was approved. The appointment process continued after the brief interruption. Following a question and answer session and a pro-con debate, the assembly voted to appoint Markov as parliamentarian, in 6-1 vote. Two representatives abstained from voting.

Meaghan Monfort, a junior religion and international relations major, was nominated and appointed to the recorder position. ‘I like being organized and taking minutes,’ Monfort said.

Kelly closed the meeting with an announcement that all SA representatives had been invited by Nancy Cantor to attend the State of the Campus address on Tuesday. ‘She has recognized SA members with this, so please be sure to show up,’ Kelly said.

Published on January 22, 2007 at 12:00 pm