United Student Government (USG) hosted their weekly meeting last week on Sept. 15. The meeting was led by Executive Vice President Ava Coogan, FCRH ’25.

Senator Andrew Falduto, FCRH ’23, raised the public concern that the printer in Hughes Hall was missing. Executive President Santiago Vidal, FCRH ’24, tasked Natalia Kimmelshue, GSB ’23, vice president of Gabelli School of Business, to address the issue. Vidal asked her to bring an update on the printer to next week’s meeting. Senator Jamie Serruto, FCRH ’24, proposed looking at the quality and status of all printers around campus. Alex Chavez, GSB ’23, vice president of finance and budgets, brought up that many printers are maintained by residential life.

Vice President of Fordham College Rose Hill Gaby Simporios, FCRH ’24, brought up the concern that because of the Monday schedule the week of Labor Day, the add-drop period ended before some students got the opportunity to attend labs. Vidal recommended that she talk to the deans about resolving that issue for future semesters.

Serruto raised the concern about more communication within USG. USG released a giveaway last week, giving away tickets to the music festival Rolling Loud. Serruto said that he and other senators were unaware the giveaway was coming out and were unequipped to answer questions from students. Vidal said the giveaway was done on a “first come first serve” basis.

According to Vidal, it was important to keep information about the giveaway to a small group so word did not get out and people did not manipulate the “first come first serve” system.

On the topic of the Rolling Loud giveaway, Vidal noted that the USG Instagram account received an increase in attention. While the account gained more followers, Vidal said that there were a few imposter USG accounts created. To resolve that in the future, Vidal showed interest in trying to get the official USG account verified.

USG approved the club “Next Impact: Undergraduate Chapter.” The club aims to inspire the next generation of leaders and inspire positive impact.
Briana Al-Omoush, FCRH ’24, vice president of diversity and inclusion, re-introduced changes to the Diversity Action Coalition (DAC) bylaws.

Al-Omoush presented the changed by-laws to DAC, and the committee voted to keep the terminology as “co-chair” instead of changing to “vice chair,” as discussed in the USG meeting the previous week. DAC also voted to approve the changes that the co-chair must have been on DAC for a semester to be elected. Coogan announced that the changes were approved.

Simporios also proposed changes to the FCRH Dean’s Council by-laws. There will now be two co-chairs on the committee, and they will be elected in the spring semester to help the vice president with the summer transition. Simporios changed the bylaw to state that if the vice president were to get impeached or resign, one of the co-chairs would serve as the interim vice president. Lastly, she proposed to change the by-laws so that anyone with a second major, minor or concentration for FCRH is eligible to join the Dean’s Council. The changes were approved.

Serruto raised concerns that some USG members must leave the meetings early due to class conflicts, which affects voting procedures. Vice President of Operations Jillian Choy, GSB ’24, suggested that in the future, all issues should be added to the “public concerns” section of the meetings instead of being brought up during. This suggestion was made to potentially help streamline the meetings and help them get done promptly so people do not have to leave in the middle.