By Adam Harrison Asst. News Editor SGA approved two club funding requests and appointed six new senators during their meeting on Oct. 1. Vice President Cesar Matos outlined the time commitments of two office hours per week for senators. He said one hour must be completed by participating in a governance committee, and one hour by doing a task in the office or participating in an outreach event led by Liv West, outreach and events coordinator. All senators are required to take part in at least one governance committee and one subcommittee, he said. President Evelyn Campbell said, “You don’t need to be a senator to serve on subcommittees.” She encouraged all interested students to attend University subcommittee meetings. Junior Alyssa MacDougall said they want to be a senator to help with relations on campus. “I see no greater pleasure than being a symbol for my community.” Sophomore Khao Bui said he wants to be a senator because “I really love the school, and I want to be able to do more and to be a connection - to raise opinions about problems the students have, and also to be able to have more of a say in change, and hopefully, make the school a better place.” Sophomore Alix Ayoub said, “If you’re going to complain about things, then you have to be part of the change, too. And I complain a lot.” She said her friends also encouraged her to join SGA. Freshman Anna Julia Ribeiro said, “English is a second language for me. I’m originally from another country, so the American school opportunity for me was something that I really loved. “I really believe that I can bring a voice to students - second-language students - and really bring diversity and a voice to everyone to be equally respected and included.” Senior Tony Sims said, “I was on SGA last year, but forgot to reapply. So, I’d like to join SGA again, because I forgot to reapply. That’s my case.” Sophomore AJ Vazquez said, “I was a part of a few meetings last semester toward the end, so I got a little bit of a sneak peek before … and I wanted to join then, but time had run out to join, unfortunately.” She said she was happy to be back, and is “really excited to see what this year and the semester brings. I just feel really passionate about people - as I’m a psych major - so I find myself to be a huge people person, and acts of service and community are very important to me.” All newly elected senators recited the oath after Campbell, and were officially sworn in. Treasurer Aimee Takouda said the Menorah Club presented a funding request for $999 for the construction of a sukkah, a temporary hut built for the Jewish festival of Sukkot, a harvest holiday. Sims asked how long the structure would remain up. President of Menorah Club Yehoshua Winter, a junior, said, “About a week and a half.” Elkhoury said, “This is a decent chunk of money, and I think it’s a really cool event that students would be interested in. I just want to make sure that there’s going to be a promotion of the event. “One thing I’m wondering about is the visibility of this, because it’s a physical structure, right? So it’s something students would be able to see and interact with. So I’m wondering, did you have the location where this was going to be?” Winter said there are several options at this point, but it will be outside, on campus, and visible to students. Takouda said Menorah Club will meet with Facilities and decide on a location after receiving funding. She said it can be constructed easily, and students are welcome to help build it. There are plans for Menorah Club to collaborate with other clubs, such as Gaming Club and Chess Club, she said. Winter said, “It is open for almost exactly the same use for anyone else who just wants to sit, and do anything.” MacDougall motioned for approval, Elkhoury seconded, and the motion passed with six in favor and three opposed. Takouda said Psychology Club requested $590 for an educational movie night. “They have questions for after the movie about how they viewed the movie, and what they think about it.” In a point of information, Vazquez said the movie is “Girl, Interrupted.” Elkhoury asked, “Did they talk about any way they’d promote the event?” Takouda said the club will be printing flyers and posting them around campus, and their advisor “will be talking about it in all her classes. … And they might be sending emails to psych majors, too.” Ayoub motioned to approve an amount not to exceed $590 for Psychology Club’s funding request, MacDougall seconded, and the motion was passed with all in favor. Matos introduced Meg Nowak-Borrego, vice president of student affairs and dean of students, to the Senate. She said she works with SGA to help identify how to advocate for student needs, and seeks student voices. “For example, I put a call out to students to help with the group that is making a decision about the new bookstore - because the bookstore contract is up this year. … So people will come up to me and I’ll go to Evelyn … or just reach out to faculty directly, so that we have student voices on search committees or governance committees,” she said. Nowak-Borrego said she is a breast cancer survivor, and appreciated the SGA eBoard wearing pink for breast cancer awareness. “They are making strides with the research, but it is your generation that I pray will find the cure. So I encourage you, if you have a chance to learn more about the different cancers, including breast cancer … support the research and education around it,” she said. “And for the people in the room that should be getting mammograms, please go get your mammograms. … I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t had a mammogram.” In open forum, Senior Raena Doty said when her suitemate put in a maintenance request to fix an issue in the suite, “They didn’t tell us they were going to come into the suite to fix it. And more important than that, we only knew [they came] because there was a footprint on my suitemate's bedding.” She said they emailed Residence Life and did not receive a response. They also attempted to email facilities, but the email did not go through. “I would like to talk about improving communication between ResLife, facilities, and people who have issues,” Doty said. West said she should email Area Director David Case because he is the director for that building and CC facilities. Junior Thomas O’Leary said he was concerned about Hurricane Helene. “I have friends who go to school down there. … It was already an impoverished region beforehand, and this hurricane just wiped a lot of stuff out. “So I’m wondering how I could go about fundraising to try to send money down there to help affected people,” he said. Elkhoury said his first thought when researching the hurricane was to collect and donate items, but he was concerned about the logistics of shipping. “So something that I’d be interested in doing is trying to set up a table and doing a bake sale or something, maybe a raffle or giveaway. … But I think it’d be awesome to do that as SGA - kind of put that table together and run that,” he said. [Editor’s Note: Raena Doty is an Arts & Features Editor for the Gatepost]