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During its meeting Monday night, Syracuse University’s Student Association approved a bill to purchase a trolley to take students to grocery stores. 

After SU announced that the Centro buses in Syracuse will not be running to South Campus or on campus after 8 p.m., some SA members felt that students needed an easier method to get to grocery stores. 

The first time this trolley will run is this Saturday, and it will take students to Target and Wegmans, according to the bill. This trolley, which costs SA about $700 per day, will run on three other undetermined occasions throughout the semester. SA hopes to expand the program with more trolleys in the future. 

Also during the meeting, SA president David Bruen passed new SA election codes. This comes shortly before the next campus-wide election. The deadline for this election is Wednesday night. SA members will be tabling in the Schine Student Center throughout the next week. SA members will also pass out election cards to students, which they will be able to sign to show support for the upcoming election. 

This election, SA leadership aims to fill academic, at-large and first-year assembly seats. There are currently 33 vacant seats in their assembly, which holds a total of 47, Bruen said. 

Maximus Short, one of the SA members, resigned today. His seat is one of the 33 available in the election. 

Another bill was passed to make the rollover budget — which includes unspent funds from last year — more transparent. Previously, the SA president, vice-president and comptroller were not required to inform the cabinet or assembly of their use of the rollover fund. This bill requires them to inform the cabinet and assembly at meetings prior to spending the rollover money. 

This comes after Bruen said that SA has an “unprecedented amount of money” in its rollover fund this year. Bruen said that SA’s budget is especially big this year and will never be this big again. SA has not specifically said how it will use this funding yet, but Bruen said he hopes it will be used for the benefit of all students.

Last week, SA passed a bill asking SU’s administration to offer more hybrid class options for students. After Bruen signed this bill, SA sent the letters to Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost John Liu and Vice President for the Student Experience and Dean of Students Rob Hradsky. 

“We’re being told the same concerns that we have been hearing. The Interim Provost and Dean of Students … said that no action will be taken from the bill and letter we sent to them,” Bruen said. “We are able to explore other options.” 

SA plans to regroup and come up with new ideas to urge administration and faculty to move to hybrid options for their classes. 

Finally, Bruen presented his move to start a five-year plan for the organization. With this five-year plan, Bruen said he wants to make SA larger and hence to increase its impact on campus. Bruen also hopes to expand SA’s stipend program.

As of now, only the president, vice-president and comptroller receive stipends. Bruen said he wants to expand the endowment fund, allowing for more students to receive stipends for their jobs within SA. 

“If we offer larger stipends, students with jobs, especially those low-income or middle-income students, will be able to run for SA and hold seats, which will allow us to be more inclusive in the future,” Bruen said. 

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Maximus Short’s reason for resigning was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on September 20, 2021 at 11:45 pm

Contact Karoline: kaleonar@syr.edu