The Student Association assembly passed a bill in support of moving the election polling location from Thornden Park to the Schine Student Center before the November 2004 presidential election.

The bill, proposed by the New York Public Interest Research Group, states that SA will represent the undergraduate students of Syracuse University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in urging the Syracuse Common Council and Onondaga Country Board of the Elections to move the polling location.

The voter turnout to the Thornden Park location was 4 percent in fall 2003, while the turnout to Schine in 1999 was 10 percent, said Abby Vogus of NYPIRG, a senior public relations and international relations major. The Thornden Park location was also not as well-lit or monitored, and many students had difficulty accessing it.

‘We think it’s fantastic that the Student Association is working with us to help fight for it,’ Vogus said.

In other SA News

n SA will also host an open forum for all student organization members to discuss the student fee allocation process at 7 p.m. today in Schine rooms ABC, said Vice President Travis Mason.

n Plans for OrangeSeeds, SA’s freshman leadership training program, have resumed, and the OrangeSeeds committee hopes to present its final proposal on May 5, Mason said.

The program will be implemented next fall, Mason added.

n SA members will begin to plan its restructuring this summer, Mason said.

n The Traditions Committee’s biggest success this year was its work on National Orange Day last month, said committee chairman Andrew Thomson.

‘It was a 100 percent improvement and step in the right direction of what I hoped to achieve,’ Thomson said.

n The assembly elected Travis Mason and Andrew Wesiberg, a junior history major, as the two new student representatives to the SU Board of Trustees, after much questioning and debate about the 10 candidates.

Board of Elections and Membership chair Jessica Cordova encouraged the remaining eight students to run for seats in the general assembly.

Published on April 26, 2004 at 12:00 pm