The Fordham Rose Hill United Student Government (USG) met on Thursday, Oct. 23, to review proposals regarding class registration and excused absences for voting and discuss future events.
Vice President of Facilities and Dining, Maddie Ando, FCRH ’27, presented the executive board’s Wellness Day plans. Ando said USG is currently partnering with Counseling and Psychological Services, Fordham Campus Dining and Campus Ministry. Ando explained that their wellness event will be split into two days.
Day one events will include a USG tabling in the McShane Campus Center, therapy dogs in McShane Campus Center room 112 as well as a creative passport making activity.
The day two activities will include yoga, meditation with pastries and an afternoon crafts session. Their yoga event is tentatively scheduled from 7 to 8 a.m., though Vice President of Student Life Luc Angus, FCRH ’26, suggested holding it later to boost attendance. Ando said the session may take place in Ramfit Fitness Center, pending an approval from Campus Ministry.
USG’s Executive President Lucas Hjertberg, FCRH ’26, and Executive Vice President Andrew McDonald, FCRH ’26, discussed the Senate’s ideas for using the $2,900 of discretionary funds that USG holds. This money is already allotted to USG and does not come from other sources.
Hjertberg explained at last week’s meeting that he hopes to plan a new USG event using around $1,800 of those funds. After the Senate voted on the form to pick which idea they preferred, they were left with a tie between two possible events: a “USG Ball” or a “day of service event.”
USG members shared their thoughts on the two events. Senator Carter Soderberg, GSB ’27, supported both events but suggested the ball over the day of service, as it would use student funding to benefit students. Budget Committee Vice Chair Siri Bhat, GSB ’27, said the day of service would allow students the chance to give back to the Bronx community, although Bhat did acknowledge that the ball would be a fun event. USG Senator Anna Brown, FCRH ’27, also supported the service event because she said it would align with Fordham’s mission.
After some deliberation, the Senate decided to use USG’s extra discretionary funds on a day of service event, which Hjertberg said he hopes to begin planning soon.
Following this, Hjertberg then introduced Senator Henry Carstens, FCRH ’29, Senator Sarah Bayas, GSB ’28, Evie Maravilla, FCRH ’29 and Senator Whitney Egbe, FCRH ’28, all whom have been working on the proposal to improve plans on the class registration website.
Their specific changes include adjusting the classes that are shown based on actual class offerings for a specific semester, a student’s plan-ahead schedule and multiple course attributes and updating class details to also include syllabi and time holds for commuting between campuses.
Senator Ashley Garcia, GSB ’27, suggested that the proposal include an indicator for classes that are reserved for the Professional and Continuing Studies students or other, non-undergraduate, programs. Carstens explained that he hopes this issue will be resolved with their proposed holding indicator.
Bayas also shared that at the GSB Dean’s Council meeting last week, there was a presentation by Fordham IT on a new website that will work as a registration aid for students. It was first piloted to FCRH students last semester and is now being tested with Gabelli students, since each school has different requirements; they hope to make it officially available to all Fordham students in spring 2026.
Additionally, Brown then presented her new proposal to include “going to vote” as an option for receiving an excused absence. Brown explained that this proposal is necessary because many students live in states where it is difficult to receive mail-in ballots, so their only option is to go home to vote.
There is also a New York State legislation — the “Student Voter Empowerment Act” — that has been introduced; if the bill is passed, every school would be required to have a voting liaison to assist student voting. Brown said that the excused absence would only count for the day that the voting is taking place and students would have to submit a photo at the polling stations to validate the excused absence.
Carstens suggested leaving the voting time frame to the dean’s discretion so that students who live farther away could also receive excused absences for travel.
The governing documents commission announced that they have finished reorganizing the Senate portion of the USG bylaws. They removed a section regarding voting delegates and are adding a new section about senators potentially becoming delegates for organizations they are already involved in.
Vice President of Health and Security Aidan Castella, FCRH ’27, announced that the Committee on Sexual Misconduct is going to host a screening of the feature documentary “ROLEPLAY” (2024) on Oct 29 with raffle prizes for students who attend.
USG meets next on Oct. 30.
