Issue 11

Page 1

SUNY Plattsburgh’s independent student newspaper since 1997

VOLUME 106 - ISSUE 11

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2022

CARDINALPOINTSONLINE.COM

SA fee passes during revote 60th BY ALEKSANDRA SIDOROVA

Staff Writer

Every two years, the Student Association holds a vote on whether the SA fee should be mandatory. For the first time in the memory of SA adviser Jacob Avery, students voted “no” April 19. Every college department was on edge until the vote passed in a revote a week later Tuesday, April 26. Avery said he was not surprised. “It’s disappointing. It’s sad and embarrassing that [the vote] failed,” Avery said. The ultimate cause of the vote’s failure was the lack of campaigning, according to Avery, SA Senator Marileana Rodriguez and Former SA Senator Ryan Ferguson. “I think that it’s always a challenge to actually get the students to vote ‘yes,’” Ferguson said. “It requires a campaign to inform students what it is, because the default condition is to not want to have to pay a mandatory fee.” Indeed, some students who voted “no” in the first election said they saw only the word “fee” and did not understand what it signified for the campus. “I definitely think that we just suspected that everyone knew what the SA fee was,” Rodriguez said. “I think that was definitely our downfall. We didn’t advertise enough, which is why, when the vote came up again, our main priority was to make sure

ZOE NGUYEN/Cardinal Points

that everyone knew all of the benefits. And really, there are not many cons [to paying the SA fee], I would say.” The SA fee funds a variety of services available to students including the campus shuttle and vacation buses, trips, clubs and organizations, events and activities, extended

library hours, tutoring at the Learning Center and the Childcare Center. Avery said he saw club representatives “boastfully” saying they voted “no,” on the SA fee, while reviewing club budgets for the coming academic year. The SA held a revote to allow students to make a more informed deci-

sion. Had the SA fee not passed on revote, either, Avery estimated the SA’s budget to decrease by 5075%, signifying cuts in the budgets of many areas of campus life. Ferguson said another failure of the initial vote was that it was comprehensive and required students to vote for every po-

elected SA leg.

sition and the fee, instead of individual categories. The revote, however, focused only on the fee. The poll also collected student demographics and asked students to confirm their understanding of the purpose of the fee. Upon revote, 88.4% of participants voted in favor of a mandatory SA fee, compared to only 45.4% in the first vote. Avery said that despite the essential services the SA fee provides, SUNY central mandates a vote on it. He said the rule was unlikely to change, unless student governments petition SUNY. Rodriguez and Ferguson say petitioning will not be necessary, and that students have a right to make an informed decision in the vote. “It is something that the students, I believe, have a right to choose,” Rodriguez said. “I think that they should decide whether or not they want to spend the extra $80, but they should also, again, be informed of what that might bring.” Although Ferguson supports the election and the vote, he said having a revote felt “patronizing.” “While I understand why they immediately did a revote, it really sort of strikes me wrong,” Ferguson said. “You’re having a democracy thing, where you’re supposed to have a vote and have that be meaningful, but if you don’t get the result you want, just campaign for another.”

The Student Association held elections for its 60th legislation, April 19. Each elected official comes from a different leadership background and set of goals for the coming academic year. Taiba Azeem, a sophomore double majoring in sociology and psychology, was elected president. Azeem said she has always had a knack for picking up leadership roles. She was the student council president throughout high school, part of the international orientation team and a teacher’s assistant her second semester at SUNY Plattsburgh. “While there are many goals that I will be individually focusing on during my term as President, the few important tasks that are top of my priority list include actively representing the needs of the student body, making the SA and its tasks more visible and enabling students to understand the sheer importance of the SA,” Azeem said. She also wants to increase student engagement by emphasizing on the importance of clubs and encourage more students to take on leadership positions.

FEE l A2

ELECTED l A5

BY ALANA PENNY Editor in Chief

Shine On! hosts 80 girls for conference BY SYDNEY HAKES FUSE Editor

SUNY Plattsburgh’s girl’s empowerment organization, Shine On!, held its 14th annual conference, titled Mighty Girls Move Mountains: Explore Your Character Compass, this past weekend. It was the first in-person conference since COVID-19 began. The survival-themed conference stemmed from the new location at Camp Pok-O-MacCready in Willsboro. This was the first in-person conference outside of campus, where it was previously held in Memorial Hall. In order to keep students, mentors and the committee safe, everyone participating in the conference was required to be fully vaccinated and submit a rapid test prior to entering the conference. Students were eating together in a dining hall and sleeping in cabins together, and the extra layer of protection for students to focus on the workshops. Those activities included rock wall climbing, a low ropes course and fire building. Volunteer expeditionary students led two of the six workshops, teaching the girls about “leave no trace,” fire building, using a compass, and botany. These workshops’ underlying message comes from Shine On!’s

seven character strengths: grit, optimism, zest, social intelligence, curiosity, self control and gratitude. Shine On! chairperson Emily Slattery said that while a new location brought on new challenges — having to cut the usual attendance from 200 girls to 80, testing for COVID, weather concerns — it also brought new opportunities. “We could take all those tangible outdoor skills they were learning and give them a symbolic message,” Slattery said. “Climbing a rock wall can be scary, but you are capable of figuring it out. That was sort of a mantra of the weekend: you can do hard things.” Kayla Vinci and Izzy Kocienda were two mentors of 20 at the conference. They stayed in the cabins with the girls and helped presenters at various workshops and activities. Workshops focused on Shine On!’s three themes: media and marketing literacy, communication skills and character strengths. The workshops ranged from knowing the difference between what’s fake and real on social media, how to deal with bullying and money management. “We would read out scenarios and ask the girls how they would react to whatever the situation was,” Kocienda said about the

facebook.com/ cardinalpts

OLGA MUKA/Cardinal Points

Girls complete the low ropes course at Camp Pok-O-MacCready for the Mighty Girls Move Mountains conference. The workshop focuses on using grit, communication and teamwork to complete the challenge. See more photos on A6. Situation Navigation workshop. “They’re at this age where they’re authentically themselves. That will likely change when they get older and enter middle school. We want to give them the tools to be prepared for situations they might face while also learning that it’s OK to be themselves.

@cardinalpointsnews

That is as much of a life skill as being able to start a fire.” Vinci also brought up the importance of targeting elementary age girls, who are developing their personalities and their relationships with one another. “Young girls can be mean to one another, on top of that,

@CardPointsNews

they’re growing up in an era of social media,” Vinci said. “What they might see on Instagram can lead to lowered self-esteem and confidence. We want to help build them up and prepare to navigate it.” SHINE l A2

@CardinalPoints


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Issue 11 by Cardinal Points - Issuu