UPDATED: Dec. 16, 2017 at 7:28 p.m.

Earlier this semester, The Daily Orange spoke with seven newly appointed Student Association committee chairs to discuss their goals and initiatives for the organization’s 61st Legislative Session.

Now, at the end of the semester, here’s the status of some of those initiatives:

Elizabeth Sedore, chair of student life

Sedore said earlier this semester that as chair of the student life committee, she wanted to emphasize topics involving safety and mental health.

This semester, Sedore received $2,100 to stock bathrooms with tampons, pads and metal dispensers in bathrooms of five buildings: the Hall of Languages, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Schine Student Center, the Life Sciences Complex and Bird Library. SA bought 2,500 tampons and 750 pads, in total. 

Sedore also requested $3,000 to relaunch the Chat & Dine program, which allows students to get a free meal with SU faculty members at the Goldstein Faculty and Alumni Center.

The student life committee also collected coats for children in Syracuse to wear this winter. The coat drive ended Sunday, and Sedore said they collected about 20 coats.

Diasia Robinson and Khalid Khan, co-chairs of diversity affairs

At the beginning of the semester, the diversity affairs co-chairs said they intended to be representative of the student body and work to make Diversity Week a bigger initiative.

The two have focused primarily on campus safety throughout the semester. This fall, the committee launched a self-defense workshop tailored to women students.

“We also helped pioneer SA’s relationship with DPS,” Robinson said. “So being on (the Diversity Affairs committee) we’ve tried to foster discussion between how DPS and students on campus can better integrate and collaborate on campus.”

DPS has agreed to be a part of Diversity Week this coming March. Khan also said they have taken steps to form a subcommittee to focus on student safety.

Diversity affairs partnered with local organizations to collect nonperishables and hygiene products for the Syracuse community.

Jen Sweet and Jack Woltman, co-chairs of community engagement

Sweet and Woltman, both co-chairs of the community engagement committee, said in September they wanted to make registered student organizations feel more welcome and heard by SA. They also both said they wanted to help students engage with the greater Syracuse community.

To work with RSOs, the committee has started organizing listening tours to hear students’ thoughts about SA. The listening tour was one of the biggest initiatives the committee decided to work on, Sweet said.

“(The initiative) took a little bit of time to get off the ground,” Sweet said. “But now everything’s in place so that when we get back next semester, we can really kick it off in full force.”

During these meetings, Sweet said SA gets feedback on how the organization can improve and what RSOs would like to see SA introduce in the future.  

Woltman said the community engagement committee is planning for its Spring Into Action initiative. Spring Into Action, an annual month of community service events, will be held next semester.

Woltman said he and Sweet have both had weekly meetings with the Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public and Community Service to help the center with their long-term community engagement plans.

Sweet said the Shaw Center wants to ensure civic engagement is a part of university initiatives such as Invest Syracuse.

Alexandra Dimitri, chair of public relations

Dimitri, chair of the public relations committee, said earlier this semester her goals were to increase awareness of SA and what it does on campus.

This semester, Dimitri said people have increasingly been engaging with SA’s social media posts. Some posts have reached about 18,000 people, she said.

The committee also introduced livestreams of SA’s weekly Assembly meetings. Dimitri said the livestreams allow the student body, cabinet and Assembly members to view the meetings even if they can’t attend them in-person on Monday nights. SU alumni and parents of students also comment and watch the meetings every week, she added.

Next semester, Dimitri said the PR committee will work to create a series of videos detailing campus resources. The videos, which will be written in the style of the “Carpool Karaoke” segments from comedian James Corden’s TV show, will feature SA President James Franco, Vice President Angie Pati and Department of Public Safety members, among others.

Malcolm-Ali Davis, chair of academic affairs

As chair of the academic affairs committee, Davis said in September he would work to extend library hours, expand grant and internship opportunities for students and try to get course syllabi posted online before students enrolled for classes.

Davis said the committee’s library hours initiative kept Bird Library open for an additional 18 hours for two weekends during midterms this semester. The extended hours will also be offered during finals week and the midterms and finals weeks this spring semester.

The committee is working to provide students access to course syllabi online so they know the basics of class requirements before enrolling. Davis said the committee has compiled a list of about four or five academic departments that currently post their syllabi online. The committee has also been communicating with other academic departments.

Davis said the goal is to have course syllabi posted for the Fall 2018 semester.

The committee is also working on implementing mental health accommodations in the university’s academic policies. As part of those efforts, the committee wants to create “mental health days,” so students can receive excused absences for mental health issues.

“What we see now with courses is that you can get an excused absence if you have a physical illness and see a doctor,” Davis said. “But mental health can affect you just as much, just in a very different way.”

Students dealing with mental illnesses can take the semester off with a leave of absence from the university, Davis said. But there’s no option for students to take a day off to focus on their mental health and receive an excused absence.

The committee will be working with the Active Minds organization for the initiative, Davis said. Active Minds is a mental health advocacy group at SU.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the length of the Spring Into Action initiative was misstated. Spring Into Action is a month-long initiative. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on December 4, 2017 at 11:54 pm

Contact Jordan: jmulle01@syr.edu | @jordanmuller18