This week the student assembly was met with requests for advising students, permission to start new clubs and acquiring funds.
Democracy Matters was one of the groups that wanted to become an official club.
KSC juniors Sydney Little and Joseph Barbesco, from Democracy Matters, said they want to get students involved and have their voices heard. Barbesco said, “Democracy Matters is a non-profit organization recognized throughout America…as far as for us, we want to start a chapter at Keene State…and we want to take big money out of politics.”
Little said, “We [want to] make people aware on campus; we [want to] get politicians to sign our petition to get reform.”
Barbesco said they even got Bernie Sanders’s signature on the petition.
Democracy Matters was unanimously voted in as an official club.
Another politically affiliated request was made by KSC student Kaitlyn Kelly for a Democratic group on campus. She said the group already has an advisor and student interest. “[Political Science Professor] Mike Welsh has agreed to be the advisor,” she said.
Photo Illustration / Devon Roberts / News Editor
Kelly said she finds it strange we don’t already have a Democratic group on campus. “It’s kind of crazy that we have [a] KSC Republicans [group], but not [a] Democratic [group] and [we’re] a liberal arts school in New Hampshire,” she said.
A vote to let the club be created was unanimous.
In addition, many student organizations came prepared to ask for funds from the student assembly. One of these groups was the Barbell Club, asking to move $1000 from their equipment budget, which currently has $1500, to professional services. This would then allow both the president and vice president of the Barbell Club to receive Crossfit training so they could effectively teach other members of the club.
Their request was granted and voted in unanimously.
One of the more lengthy presentations was from the KSC dance team who asked for $2,700 to go to a national competition. Victoria Smolenski, manager for the team, said that this experience would be good for KSC’s reputation. She said, “Not only nationally, but internationally as well; last year we got to meet a group from Japan. It is aired on ESPN too, so people could see us and see Keene State in a good manner.”
The group said they have various fundraising events planned, including bake sales, a Bruins raffle, a Thanksgiving pie sale and a GoFundMe account they’ve shared with friends on social media.
Senior Captain Courtney Capone said they need the money for their outfits and plane tickets to Florida where the competition is held, but said it’s difficult to get it all from fundraising. “As college students we are limited to who we can ask for money,” Capone said.
Members of the student assembly deliberated the issue. Member Bethany Peterson asked why they didn’t want to go to regionals instead and save money that way. “I’m paying $400 for alternative spring break and I’m driving to Kentucky,” Peterson said.
Student assembly member, Robert Graham said the dance team should look at what money might have been rolled over from the previous semester, and then the student assembly should help the rest of the way. “I don’t think it would be totally ridiculous for student assembly to give some small amount of money…just to ensure that the girls can go,” he said.
In the end, the student assembly asked the group to check with finances for that potential roll-over, then get back to them at the next meeting.
The assembly did vote in $5,750.65 for their student government pumpkin event this past Sunday. Members of the group were also asked to help. Student assembly member Marissa DePolo said, “One good thing that we are doing to reduce the costs, is instead of hiring Sodexo workers to work the entire time, we’re going to have all of us on the committee and a bunch of you guys working as well.”
Student assembly member Laura Graham mentioned Red and White Night, which will be held November 20. She also asked for volunteer s, especially first-years, to help out. “You guys will have this eventually and it’s really fun, you get to dress up and there’s a lot of free food,” she said.
In addition to voting in new clubs and delegating how funds should be spent, KSC advisors from Keeling & Associates, Richard Keeling and Eric Narburgh share their plan to ensure KSC students the best education they can from both academic and extracurricular activities.
Keeling said, “The college is looking at a variety of ways to make what happens in classrooms be what happens out of classrooms…[this is] demonstrated with…internships and other initiatives and we’re trying to find more of these things [for students].”
Narburgh said they are meeting with students, faculty and staff on how they think they could help. “What we hope to get out this process is to develop a list of programs and activities that the committee can then look at and prioritize as part of this plan,” he said.
Student assembly member Susan Udall asked about whether they had thought of implementing older students to help new students find opportunities on and off campus. “Is there any kind of peer advising; assigning an upperclassman to help a first-year? A lot of first-years aren’t clear, they don’t have an advisor and they might want to reach out to someone who’s been here for a while.”
Keeling said he liked her question and that with their plan, there will be an advisor for every student to get more experience, especially in co-curricular activities. He said, “There are great opportunities for peer advising.
Dorothy can be contacted at dengland@kscequinox.com
