Student Association President Aysha Seedat has concerns with Syracuse University’s new travel and entertainment policy.

Seedat discussed those concerns Monday night at the SA assembly meeting in Maxwell Auditorium. She also updated the assembly on the continued statewide push for the legalization of ride-hailing services in New York state.

The new travel policy made BTI The Travel Consultants the university’s official travel management company and requires the use of Concur, a 24/7 booking portal, for university-funded travel. It considers the student activity fee a university fund, Seedat said, which means students using the fee for travel expenses will need to adhere to the policy.

Seedat said that while SU will benefit in the long term from the policy, current students won’t be at SU long enough to see the benefit of it. Because of that, she plans to propose two separate solutions to the issue.

In a post-meeting interview, Seedat said she is working to have the student activity fee not considered a university fund. She recently began writing a policy to define the activity fee, since SU does not currently have a written definition. A concrete definition could make it easier to have the fee not be considered a university fund, Seedat said.

If that does not work out, she said she hopes to create an exception to the travel policy that would allow students to not adhere to it if they show proof of a less expensive option for specific travels.

“For example, if we show them the two different booking options side by side, they should say, ‘Fine, use Expedia,’” Seedat said.

Seedat plans on voicing her frustration with the policy Wednesday at an open forum that is being held in Maxwell Auditorium to discuss the policy.

“It’s really sad to see how much money we’ll be spending to get cheaper prices in the future,” Seedat said.

Seedat also discussed the progress being made by other student governments in bringing ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, to New York state. Currently, those services are illegal in the state, except for New York City, because of a restriction in a state insurance law.

Seedat participated in a Google conference call last week with Thomas Mastro and Melissa Kathan, the president and vice president, respectively, of the State University of New York Student Assembly — the student governing body for all colleges in the SUNY system.

Mastro and Kathan told Seedat they recently finished drafting a resolution stating their support for ride-hailing services in New York state, Seedat said.

Last month, the SU Student Association assembly voted to approve sending a letter to the New York State Assembly pledging its own support for the legalization of ride-hailing services.

Seedat and Parliamentarian James Franco spent time throughout the semester drafting the letter, while frequently consulting SUNY SA and the student governments at other colleges in New York state for feedback.

When the state assembly convenes for its next legislative session in January, it will consider bill A.6090, which would change state law to include ride-hailing services in its insurance regulations. That would allow the services to operate statewide.

Published on December 7, 2015 at 10:46 pm

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