The Undergraduate Student Government senate unanimously confirmed freshman political science major Andrei Moraru as an associate justice of the USG judiciary in its half-hour meeting on Thursday.
Only 14 out of the 22 senators attended the meeting, and five other senators sent proxies in their place.
All Executive Council members except Treasurer Kathryn Michaud were absent, and President Pro Tempore Cody Pomeroy acted as chair of the senate in Executive Vice President James Alrassi’s absence.
Before the vote on his confirmation, Moraru said the position of justice would fit well with his post-graduation goals.
“My future scopes are to go to law school, and currently, the mock trial program I wasn’t actually able be a part of it because I get involved in RHA [Residence Hall Association] a lot,” Moraru said. “And I feel like this would be a great way to get involved and not have it take up as much time because it only does require about 10 hours of work per week.”
The senate also officially acknowledged the Stony Brook Film Club by a vote of 14-0-2.
The club’s president, Pinkhas Nisanov, attended the senate meeting.
“We plan to discuss, watch and create films and try to promote film production and open cinema chats in the student body,” Nisanov said of the Stony Brook Film Club.
Reports from the Executive Council members were scheduled to be presented at the senate meeting, but because most of the executive council was absent, the reports were moved to the next senate meeting.
Each senator in attendance then gave a report on his or her own projects from this semester.
College of Arts and Sciences Senator Arjun Kumar said that he has spoken to John Sparano, the director of Campus Residences Operations, about adding water bottle-filling stations to residence halls and that new stations would be installed in both Mendelsohn and H Quads.
College of Arts and Sciences Senator Angelo Lambroschino said that he has been meeting with students and trying to increase USG’s recognition on campus.
“I feel like a lot of people are still afraid of us,” Lambroschino said. “They think we’re very intimidating. We’ve done a lot, so I’m trying to open the door a bit more.”
Pomeroy, also a College of Arts and Sciences senator, said he is working with the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance on a resolution to rename the “rape trail” between Tabler Quad and West Apartments to something along the lines of “Wolfie’s Walk” or “Wolfie’s Trail.”
Senior Class Senator Tyesha Jordan-Arnette said that as the undergraduate representative to the Alumni Association, she has been working with Dr. Samuel L. Stanley, the university president, and Dexter Bailey, the university senior vice president for advancement.
“We’re working with Dr. Stanley to find a solution for students who passed their four-year limit—like they’re fifth-year students—and students who reached their aggregates in loans, who need help paying for school, such as myself, so we’re trying to find a resolution for that,” Jordan-Arnette said.
Arielle Martinez
Arielle is a senior journalism major in Stony Brook University's Honors College. She joined The Statesman as a copy editor before covering USG senate meetings for the news team. She has also written for The Chronicle of Higher Education and Long Island Press. She was an editing intern at The Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minnesota during the summer of 2015 as part of the Dow Jones News Fund. (Twitter: @AMartinezNews). Contact Arielle at: [email protected]
