At their meeting on April 7, student assembly members convened to discuss the continued work on the budgets, changes to school clubs and upcoming state legislation.
First-year Treasurer Karen Cisneros explained that the Budget Committee is working on finishing up the plans for the budgets going forward.
“We had another meeting yesterday to go over all the budgets again,” Cisneros said. “And we finished and finalized stuff, and so Jen [Ferrell] and I plan to meet this Friday to go over everything that I need to do to finish, which is nothing insane, I just need to put a slideshow together and then just making sure everything is spelled right on the sheets to send to Amanda [Rotigliano].”
Cisneros said the committee pushed back the finalization of budgets because one of the committee’s meetings went from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m and that the members wanted to make sure it was their best work.
“We didn’t want to rush the process and not think everything through, so we decided to wait and have another meeting so we weren’t rushing to get it done by today,” Cisneros said.
Senior Representative Nathan Hope added that the KSC Senate planned to meet the following day, on April 8.
“My committee, the College-Wide Academic Policy Committee, had a joint meeting with the Academic Policy and Standards Committee to discuss some questions from the registrar office relating to curriculum-related concerns,” Hope said. “There were also questions about minor declarations and being able to declare a minor online. Now they’re asking if it would be better to have an advisor signature.”
Hope also discussed the Student Life Committee and a meeting that occurred on the same day as the Assembly meeting.
“The nutrition club… is trying to change its name to the Health Sciences Club,” Hope said. “But we met with their current president, Grace Abbott, and talked with her about some of the improvements we would like to see made before further considering it. [There is] a lot of stuff to do with inconsistencies across current sections.”
Keene State alum Jacob Favolise attended the meeting and brought up House Bill 323, as well as the implications it presents for college campuses.
“I have shared a little bit in the past about the number of bills that I have been tracking and keeping an eye on in Concord that the university system did not have an official position on,” Favolise said. “But I thought it would be in our interest and students in particular. House Bill 323 is a bill requiring presentation of a government-issued photographic means of identification. This bill removes student IDs from the list of allowed means of identification.”
Favolise also mentioned the Campus Carry legislation, which is scheduled for a hearing on April 14.
That bill “is in some ways similar to legislation that came before and also more expansive than what we’ve seen in other parts of the country that would allow for anyone to carry a firearm on campus,” Favolise said, adding that it would include places such as dorms and classrooms with few restrictions.
Favolise said people can sign up to testify. The university system opposes the legislation.
Chloe Erno can be contacted at
Nathan Hope is the managing executive editor of The Equinox and serves on student assembly. He had no part in the editing or writing of this article.
