On Thursday, Sept. 8, the Fordham University Rose Hill United Student Government (USG) met to discuss public concerns and the upcoming USG Senate elections.

Senator Andy Diaz, FCRH ’25, reported that there have been multiple concerns regarding the O’Hare Residential Hall fire alarms going off,, as they have been continuously disrupting the students.

Executive President Santiago Vidal, FCRH ’24, explained that the USG has, in fact, spoken with the facilities department about the ongoing issue, and facilities explained that the problem is caused by a fire alarm directly above the grill in Urban Kitchen.

The Senate voted in a call to action that they will revisit this topic with facilities again and see if there are any changes that can be made to improve the issue.

The two candidates for vice president of communications and marketing, Frank Velez, FCRH ’23, and Ariadna Wong, FCRH ’25, presented their campaigns and ideas to the Senate.

Velez stated that he has both worked on local political campaigns and previously worked with USG marketing. Velez stated that he wanted to reach more students on campus by advertising for the upcoming elections and having USG members become more involved with club activities.

Wong presented her campaign as being centered around organization. She hopes to create a connection between USG and the rest of the student body.

One idea on how to increase student involvement with USG was to possibly create a Buzzfeed quiz to find out “which senator are you,” creating a fun and informative way for students to find out who the various senators are.

Additionally, she wanted to create training workshops to help ease the transition from committee members to senators and expand the communication committee.

Wong won the Senate vote and is now the new vice president of communication and marketing and will begin working to improve the communications and marketing committee.

Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, Briana Al-Omoush, FCRH ’24, presented a few changes that she is looking to make to the Diversity Action Coalition (DAC) bylaws. She wants to require candidates running for co-chair must have at least one semester of DAC experience. She is also looking to change the position name of “co-chair” to “vice chair.”

Senator James Serruto, FCRH ’24, suggested that all positions listed as “co-chair,” in all committees, should be changed to “vice chair” to exemplify a more uniform student government.

Both Vidal and Executive Vice President Ava Coogan, FCRH ’25, presented awards to 2022 orientation coordinators, Julian Navarro, FCRH ’23, Karin Schroeder, FCRH ’24, Bridget McDermott, FCRH ’23 and Grant Figueroa, GSB ’24.

Awards were also extended to the entire staff of the Office of Student Involvement as a thank you for their hard work and for putting together a great orientation.