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After releasing election results for executive roles of the 2023-24 academic year, Syracuse University’s Student Association introduced a stipend expansion bill at its Monday night meeting that would expand financial compensation to more roles within SA based on each role’s weekly hours.

President David Bruen and Executive Vice President Adia Santos introduced the bill, which would cover vice presidents, communications directors and speaker pro tempore of the assembly. Each of these roles each commit approximately eight hours a week to SA, Bruen said.

Currently, the President, Executive Vice President, Comptroller, Speaker of the Assembly, Chief of Staff and the Board of Elections Chair receive stipends, which are currently allocated based on workload.

“(It’s) a matter of priority by position across the organization, based on their constitutional requirement and the importance of the role in serving the organization right now and how vital they are to us doing our legal functions and actions,” Bruen said.

Bruen said the vice presidents who would receive a stipend under the bill include the vice president of academic affairs, the vice president of university affairs, the vice president of diversity, the vice president of inclusion and the vice president of community affairs.

SA leaders said the effort is the first step in their plans to gradually expand stipends to cover all positions in SA. Speaker Pro Tempore Anna Ginelli said the gradual stipend expansions will hopefully encourage more students to become involved in SA with the knowledge they’ll be paid for their work.

“With the stipend, it makes it more accessible for students because obviously these roles take up a lot of time, and I know not every student can justify doing that work if they’re not getting paid for it,” Ginelli said.

Speaker of the Assembly William Treloar announced at the meeting that SA will be beginning a “Student Association on Tour” initiative to increase engagement with the student body and inform students about SA’s services. The tour, set to begin after next Sunday, would facilitate interactions between campus community members and SA members, Treloar said.

Treloar said SA members will venture in pairs or groups to different departments and student organizations across campus to speak about how SA can help students.

“We want to talk about the budget process, we want to talk about resources that we can tell (RSOs) about, we want to talk about advocacy that they can work with us on, and we also really want to boost the student body needs survey by going to members of RSOs directly,” Treloar said.

During the meeting, Bruen also provided updates on initiatives he’s been working on with Santos, including the creation of the alumni council that will allow former SA members to mentor current members and the future of SA’s sustainability efforts. He noted an upcoming significant update on SA’s sustainability efforts, and emphasized SA’s priority of advocacy surrounding sustainability at SU.

Following last Monday’s bias incident of stolen Haudenosaunee and LGBTQ flags from outside of Hendricks Chapel, SA passed a bill to purchase LGBTQ and Haudenosaunee Confederacy flags to hang in the SA office in the Schine Student Center as a sign of support. SA will distribute the flags to other locations around campus as well, Treloar said.

Other business:

Board of Elections Chair Otto Sutton gave a summary report of the spring 2023 election, which had a 5.61% voter turnout, or 863 votes. Applications for cabinet positions will close this Friday.

SA’s student outreach effort “No Problem Too Small” will table from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in front of Schine on April 12 to ask students about what they want to see on campus and what initiatives SA should work on in the coming year, Treloar said.

SA passed a bill to fund Spring Into Action, which will consist of volunteer opportunities from April 12-23.

Four new University Senators have been voted into SU’s University Senate: Treloar, Sutton, Yasmin Nayrouz and Brielle Robinson. Treloar and Nayrouz will serve as president and executive vice president of SA, respectively, for the 2023-24 school year.

Published on April 4, 2023 at 2:18 am

Contact Roxanne: rmboychu@syr.edu