Fordham University’s United Student Government (USG) held their second weekly meeting of the semester on Jan. 22, where they heard public concerns, elected new senators and finished reviewing USG bylaw revisions.
To begin the meeting, Executive Vice President Andrew McDonald, FCRH ’26, asked the gallery if there were any public concerns to be addressed. Laura Cosma, GSB ’27, brought up several suggestions for campus improvements. Most notably, Cosma suggested adjusting the parking pass pricing for spaces in the Fordham garage, located next to O’Hare Hall. Cosma cited that the yearly student pricing rate is almost $1,000, placing extra financial burdens on commuters.
In response to Cosma’s concerns, Vice President of Facilities and Dining Madeleine Ando, FCRH ’27, shared that her committee is currently working on a proposal decreasing yearly rates of parking passes.
Cosma also suggested the university look into incorporating artwork into campus buildings, specifically Hughes Hall, where the Gabelli School of Business (GSB) is located. She noted that in order to be well-rounded, students should be learning about culture and history as well.
Following public concerns, USG held a special election for the three open senate seats allotted to the Class of 2027; one being available for a GSB student and the other two for students in the Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH). Four candidates presented speeches on what they would accomplish in the USG senate in the hopes of being elected.
The first candidate to present was Anna Gayton, FCRH ’27. Gayton began her speech by informing the senate that as the (now former) Fordham Ram columnist for USG, she has closely followed their weekly progress and decided she wanted to become a bigger part of making change on campus through being on the USG senate.
Gayton noted that she is a transfer student, coming to Rose Hill from the University of Vermont, where she studied biology. She said her transition was difficult, as she felt alone in this new environment. If elected, Gayton informed the senate that she would work to bring back the transfer student mentorship program.
Next to present was Berkley Dorsten, FCRH ’27, former vice chair of the operations committee and a former member of the USG senate. Dorsten noted that she hopes to continue her work with Catharine McGlade, assistant dean for Student Involvement, on improving the first-year formation program. Dorsten also suggested putting in place a feature on the Fordham app that would count the number of students in the McShane Campus Center gym at any given time.
The following speech was by Megan Ruzicka, FCRH ’27, who had previously served on USG both as a senator and as the vice president of operations. She began by citing her time as the latter, where she claims to have gotten about 10 clubs passed through the club creation process.
Ruzicka now serves on the committee of sexual misconduct. She said her main proposal would be to focus on expanding programs available to help students with chronic illnesses. A part of this would involve working on furthering the current USG excused absence proposal.
The final candidate to present their speech was Advika Dushyanth, GSB ’27, who had previously served as a senator and on the budget committee, along with the GSB Dean’s Council and Diversity Action Coalition committees. She promised to advocate for emergency parking passes for commuter students as well as priority class registration for resident assistants (RAs) should she be elected.
Following a lengthy voting session, Gayton and Ruzicka were selected to fill the vacant FCRH seats, and Dushyanth took the sole GSB seat.
USG continued their weekly meeting by going over and finalizing the proposed bylaw revisions, put together by the specified commission and presented by Katelyn Martins, FCRH ’27, alongside Anna Wiss, FCRH ’26, and Domenick Fedele II, FCRH ’29.
The executive board updates began with a brief statement from the new lead on the Contraceptive Commission, Vice President of Health and Security Aidan Costella, FCRH ’27, where he explained that the commission would not just serve to put on the town hall event that was postponed in the fall semester, but they would also hold various other events throughout the semester related to the policy reform.
Vice President of Operations Tina Pathak, FCRH ’28, shared that the new club application form is now live on the USG website, with the form closing in three weeks.
The next USG meeting will be on Jan. 29 in Bepler Commons.
