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On Monday, Syracuse University’s Student Association passed a bill officially acknowledging Indigenous Peoples’ Day for the first time in SA history. The bill was passed with a lot of support among SA members.

David Bruen, the president of SA, expressed enthusiasm for the bill, and he said he feels glad to officially recognize the holiday. 

“It’s a very important day, considering our long history with Indigenous communities. We continue to do everything to bring these communities into the fold and recognize their human experience,” Bruen said. “These kinds of things make me very proud to serve in this role.” 

This comes after President Joe Biden acknowledged today as Indigenous Peoples’ Day as well as Columbus Day. 

The meeting today also included multiple elections and appointments for SA positions. The Finance Board had a contested election with six candidates running for a spot in the five available seats. 

After a series of candidate speeches and questions posed by the assembly, Lauren Kang, Tiara Mcintosh, Aidan Laszlo, Samantha Oates and Angela Pepdjonovic were elected to the Finance Board. 

SA also elected William Treloar as the new speaker pro tempore. In this role, he will help with the induction of new members, work with other committee chairs, act as an overall internal resource for SA and replace the speaker, Thomas Simmons, when they are absent.

“My goal for speaker pro temp is to make sure that our committees here at SA run really smoothly,” Treloar said. “Last year, I saw a committee put on great events and engage a lot of students, and I think that was mainly due to how it was run by great co-chairs. I hope to bring that to all the committees through this position.”

On Oct. 4, SA submitted a bill that asked to buy a new tablecloth. The current SA tablecloth was described as “dirty” and “disgusting” and thus needed a replacement — which had an estimated price of about $170 — in order to look more presentable when conducting tabling events. 

But after some debate, members agreed that there should be more items on the bill.

Maya Goosmann | Digital Design Director

The bill on Monday called for the spending of $1,775.09 from the SA public relations budget on an assortment of items including the tablecloth, pens, phone wallets, stickers, buttons, poster and white boards, a trash can and a recycling bin. 

SA has stated that the order would’ve been much cheaper if they used larger retail websites like Staples but have opted instead to support a local upstate New York business, Sticker Mule. The bill was met with applause soon after passing. 

SA passed another bill saying that they will approve funds of almost $960 towards the Bandana Project campaign on campus. The project engages in mental health awareness and distributes green bandanas to students to stand in solidarity with suicide victims.

Finally, SA approved to fund $150 to buy and distribute plants to students during sustainability month.

Published on October 12, 2021 at 12:32 am

Contact Danis: dwcammet@syr.edu