By Hannah Gonzalez
This coming academic year, commuters will gain representation at Student Life Council (SLC) meetings. A Commuter Assistant (CA) position has been added to council meetings, to represent the interests and concerns of commuters.
According to Monique Dumaine, assistant director for leadership and commuter student services, the position will grant commuters a voice in SLC meetings, where topics and updates from all areas of the Fordham community are discussed.
“Members of SLC wanted to ensure the commuter voice was equally represented during the full council meetings,” said Dumaine. “All members of SLC were in support of the creation of this position and are looking forward to seeing it come to life.”
Commuter Assistants are a team of student leaders who serve as mentors and programmers for first-year commuter students, according to Dumaine. Their role is to foster a sense of community amongst the population of students who do not live on campus.
“This individual would be able to spotlight what is being accomplished in the world of Commuter Student Services, draw attention to concerns from this population and continue to build connections with the Fordham community at large,” said Dumaine.
According to Dumaine, three commuter assistant representatives will serve their population alongside the three residential assistant representatives currently in attendance of the meetings.
Nemesis Dipre, FCRH ’18, currently takes part in SLC meetings in her role as executive president of the Commuting Students’ Association. She said that the Commuter Assistant position will be able to speak to the interests of first-year commuters in the same manner that resident assistants on the council speak to the interests of their residents.
“Unlike the Executive President of CSA, the CA represents a student employee organization that executes their own set of events and meetings that focuses on freshman commuters,” said Dipre. “The CA’s position on the board will allow the SLC to include insight on the needs and concerns of first-year commuter students.”
Commuter Assistant Patrick Infurna, FCRH ’20, agreed that the creation of a Commuter Assistant position will give voice to the particular interests of the first-year commuter population.
“Commuter Assistants give special attention to commuting freshmen, so anytime a CA’s voice is heard, a commuting freshman’s voice is heard,” said Infurna.
The creation of a Commuter Assistant position is a step toward increasing representation for commuters and discussion of the unique challenges of the commuter population on campus, according to Dipre.
“I hope this position inspires more conversation about commuter needs and brings more commuter students to SLC meetings,” she said.
Commuters Assistants have similar hopes for the position. Infurna said that increasing communication between the commuter and residential populations will help build a community for commuters on campus, as well as facilitate relationships between commuters and residents.
“We know that there are plenty of untapped ways of integrating the commuter and resident populations, so we’re really excited to work with the council,” said Infurna.
“I can really only see great things coming from our new representation.”
The Commuter Assistant position will be joining the council in the 2018-2019 academic year. Current attendants of the meetings include representatives from Office for Student Involvement, Residential Life, Dean of Students, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Fordham College, Gabelli School of Business, United Student Government, Residence Halls Association, Campus Activities Board and Commuting Students Association.
