Suffolk University’s Student Government Association held their 14th general meeting of the semester, which included a guest speaker, a reinventing of how they host their Senator-Sit Downs and awarding another P.I.L.L.A.R. award.
The meeting began with guest speaker Laura Golitko, assistant director of the Counseling, Health and Wellness center, who spoke about the JED Campus program, which Suffolk has been a part of since 2022. JED Campus is a four-year long program that has a focus on improving student’s knowledge and access to mental health services on college campuses.
As part of the JED Campus program, Suffolk has to conduct two Healthy Mind Study surveys during the four years; one at the start of the program, which was in 2022 for Suffolk, and another at the end of the program’s cycle, this year. The responses are recorded by Michigan State University and then compared to other universities within the JED Campus program.
Last time Suffolk did a Healthy Mind Study survey, they received 1014 responses, which was comparable to other participating universities. Through the survey, the findings revealed that Suffolk students are on par with the national average percentage of university students reporting moderate or severe symptoms of depression.
As the end of the cycle is coming up for Suffolk, another Healthy Mind Study survey will be sent out to student emails. The survey is completely anonymous and CHW will be awarding 100 students with gift cards to Dunkin’ Donuts for filling out the survey. The survey will be available for a month, from Feb. 9 to March 9.
Next on the docket was a revamping of how SGA does their Senator Sit-Downs process. They will host Senator Sit-Downs every Monday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Samia, Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Sawyer and Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. at Smith. They’ll have four senators at each Sit-Down and senators signed up for their preferred time slot during the meeting.
At these Senator Sit-Downs, the senators will have a Google Form they will need to fill out as they interact with students; the questions rely on which committee is hosting that particular Senator Sit-Down. This is to ensure that SGA is receiving helpful and more “in-depth” responses from students as ways to improve Suffolk University.
“We are trying to avoid the question that everyone always asks: ‘What’s the role of the senator?’” said Charlie Reyes-Demes, SGA president. “We are changing the definition of what a senator is.”
The elected officials gave their reports for the week. Vice President Kayleigh Carey spoke about how there would be a meeting later that evening to amend the Student Judiciary Review Board Constitution and invited SGA members to attend. She spoke briefly about the upcoming Spring elections and the fact that, in order to run, you must be nominated by two other senators.
After approving the meeting minutes from the week prior, Secretary Stephanie Lima went around the room and did a recap of their Spring retreat.
The P.I.L.L.A.R. Award this week was given to Simone Alcindor, a Suffolk Journal contributor. Lima noted his advocacy outside of SGA as a reason for giving the award to him, as “advocacy” is what the “A” in “PILLAR” stands for.
Treasurer Frank Ezhan gave the updates on the Financial Committee, who met with two clubs asking for money for events.
Suffolk’s Empower club met with the Financial Committee and asked for $10,000 to have a retreat-based event, with a focus on mental health. They received none of the money they asked for, as the Financial Committee requested that they come back after refining what they are requesting, as a request of that sum would have to go to the senate floor.
Black Law Student Association approached the Financial Committee with two requests. One for $1,280 dollars to provide snacks at a guest speaker event. They were awarded $829 dollars, after the Financial Committee decided they could provide water instead of soda. Their second request was for another $1,280 dollars to get professional headshots done. They received none of that money and were recommended to go to the Career Center, where they can get headshots for free from the university.
Due to time constraints, the Open Forum was only brief, making way for two announcements. The first announcement was Ram Rivalry, a competition held between the College of Arts and Sciences, the Sawyer Business School and the Graduate program, which took place Jan. 23 and had the graduate students going home victorious. This competition included three events for the three schools to compete in: billiards / ping pong, “Jeopardy” and a basketball tournament.
The end of Ram Rivalry marks the beginning of the second announcement, Spring spirit week. This will be taking place Jan. 27 through Jan. 29. Tuesday is “Boston sports” day, which means an opportunity to represent your favorite Boston sports teams. Wednesday is “Suffolk spirit day,” giving students a chance to show off their Suffolk pride. Thursday, Jan. 29 is “anything but a backpack” day and the same day as SGA’s next meeting, from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
