The Fordham Rose Hill United Student Government (USG) met on Thursday, Feb. 21 to review bylaw changes, study abroad concerns and club presentations.
Executive President Eron Maltzman, GSB ’25, opened up a discussion regarding the proposed bylaw changes. Audience member Evan McManus, FCRH ’25, stated that he wanted to express his concern about the new proposed changes for the USG election process. He explained that he used to be a senator on USG and felt that it would be best to continue to allow all students, regardless of whether they have participated in USG before, to run for the executive ticket.
He said that he believes that there are many benefits to allowing all students to run for presidency and, if that were to be changed, he does not think that the Fordham University community would be very accepting of the change.
Vice President of Fordham College Emma Blake, FCRH ’25, explained that she and Maltzman have been in continued contact with the Study Abroad Office and their delegates. She stated that she hopes to have a clarifying meeting with the Study Abroad faculty to make sure that all of their concerns are clear.
There have been issues with communicating with the Study Abroad Student Advisory Council. Maltzman said they feel that creating a Study Abroad Committee may be the best approach to address the study abroad concerns coming from students.
Dennis C. Jacobs, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, spoke to USG about what his office does for the university and about upcoming changes. He explained that his role is to offer support for every aspect of the university and consider the university’s longer-term strategic goals.
Some current projects that his office is working on are the core curriculum revision, undergraduate research opportunities and study abroad concerns. They are also working on updating the science facilities on campus with the help of outside consultants and the board of trustees. He stated that within the next two weeks, there will be a major announcement in this regard.
Blake asked if he could explain how the structure of the Dean’s office will change when the new Dean of Arts and Sciences is hired. Jacobs explained that there are normally four Deans of Arts and Sciences and they all report to him, however, with this new change, there will only be one Dean of Arts and Sciences that will work with a team of vice deans to make sure that everything runs smoothly. The new dean will start in their role on July 1.
Two new clubs presented their club proposal at the meeting, as well. The first club to present was Community Squared. The president and vice president of the prospective club explained that the purpose of this club would be to facilitate a love for math by using art to create more enjoyable math-focused activities.
Some future events they hope to have include a Pi Day festival, math board game nights and observatory nights where members would paint and draw constellations. They hope to also incorporate community outreach and volunteer opportunities with local Bronx schools into their club. This would include going to local schools and helping tutor kids who struggle with math in an afterschool program or during designated math periods. They would also host fundraiser events where the money raised would be used to buy school supplies for students.
The European Society also presented their club proposal. The club’s president and vice president shared that the purpose of this club would be to promote an environment where all students from Europe or of European descent can feel at home.
They hope to have events that foster European culture across campus, create meaningful connections between students and professionals to network and to explore European history. They plan to host a cultural event on European art and history with possible guest speakers, have informative events on European countries and host a European business, financial and/or political symposium.
