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Syracuse University’s Student Association will extend its dorm clothing drive, one of its several Fall Into Action events, throughout this week. It is also preparing to host several student advocacy initiatives as the end of the semester approaches.

SA began Fall Into Action — a week of community volunteering events available to SU and SUNY ESF students — on Nov. 4. It also started hosting Donuts with the Dean events, where students can have free coffee and donuts while meeting their respective schools’ deans. While the clothing drive does not have a set end date, Donuts with the Dean will continue into the last week of November, Anna Ginelli, SA’s Speaker of the Assembly, said.

Ginelli said Donuts with the Dean received a positive response from students. She also hopes that the final three events — which will be held at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, the School of Information Studies and the College of Visual and Performing Arts — will achieve similar success.

Donuts with the Dean and Fall Into Action are some of SA’s several ongoing student advocacy programs. Ginelli said SA also plans to host Food for Finals again to provide snacks for students during finals week. It also plans to distribute sexual violence prevention kits in the Schine Student Center between 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1. The kits include drink spiking detection tests, drink covers, a portable door lock and a Birdie personal alarm.

SA Executive Vice President Yasmin Nayrouz said she wants these events to help students feel involved on campus and in the broader Syracuse community.

“We’re just really trying to engage students and advocate for them,” Nayrouz said. “We’ve been creating programming that is responsive to what they want.”

Nayrouz also said SA is collaborating with other on-campus organizations to host upcoming events. On Wednesday at 5 p.m., it is hosting a Paint Night alongside the SU’s Native Student Program as part of its ongoing Native Heritage Month celebrations.

Olivia Curreri, SA’s vice president of university affairs, said the organization will continue working with the university on its sustainability goals, which were introduced this spring.

Following the recent passing of an internal sustainability bill, Curreri also said SA plans to internally audit its future legislation using a new Green Purchasing Guide, which will outline vendors that align with the university’s plastics phaseout goal.

“Throughout the end of the semester, my primary goal is to solidify Phase 1 of implementation in order to train assembly members at the beginning of next semester to utilize the Green Purchasing Guide,” Curreri wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange.

Eden Gardner, SA’s chair of community engagement and government affairs and vice president of SUNY ESF’s Mighty Oak Student Association, presented the bill during last week’s meeting. The proposal included a drafted version of the purchasing guide. Members of ESF’s Oakie’s Green Team and the SA Sustainability Forum created the draft guide.

Curreri also said she frequently meets with the university’s sustainability management office alongside Eniola Festus and Izzy Kaufman, SA’s co-directors of sustainability, to ensure its continued adherence to these goals. Curreri is also a member of the university’s Sustainability Oversight Council, in which she said she works closely with Chancellor Kent Syverud, a member of the board of trustees and a faculty sustainability expert to ensure the university stays on track with its sustainability goal implementation.

“We will continue to collaborate with students and administration to guide our implementation phases,” Curreri said.

Published on November 12, 2023 at 9:40 pm

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu