The Student Governance Council met for its first meeting of Fall 2023 on Aug. 28 to discuss confirmations to the election committee, officer reports and Fall 2023 elections.
The process for electing new members to the SGC will begin Sept. 1, when applications will be made live on IC Engage. The form will close Sept. 7 and platform presentations will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 in the Taughannock Falls room. At the platform presentations, students will be able to hear from candidates and ask questions about their campaigns. Students will be able to vote for candidates from Sept. 13–16.
Sophomore Caleb Cackowski, vice president of communications; sophomore Rishabh Sen, vice president of campus affairs; junior Noah Richardson, student liaison to the Alumni Board; senior Student Trustee Alexa Rahman; and senior Noah Strathmann, vice president of business and finance, were the candidates who presented their platforms for being on the elections committee.
Cackowski said he wants people to be engaged and wants the SGC to be more communicative about the election process, especially after the controversy surrounding the validity of the Spring 2023 elections.
“At our last meeting, there were a lot of questions about communication and transparency surrounding the process of the election,” Cackowski said. “As VP of communications, [it is] very important that I be involved in this committee so that I can ensure that all of those kinds of questions will be answered this time.”
Sen said he is looking forward to welcoming new members to the SGC and hopes to work more on outreach to constituents. Sen said he also wants to ensure that IC Engage functions properly during the Fall 2023 election cycle and does not crash like last time. IC Engage went down briefly in Spring 2023 and students were unable to sign in to cast their votes, which led to the voting period being extended.
“I’m very excited for fall elections because looking at demographics last year, there was a huge distribution of first-years that came into SGC and they formed a very large population that was showing a new beginning after COVID,” Sen said. “I really feel enthusiastic about keeping that trend going and making sure many first-years sign up.”
Richardson said he hopes to get more students involved with SGC and is looking forward to future initiatives.
“I feel like we can and [do] have a lot of potential to do a lot of work on this campus,” Richardson said. “[I am] not really interested in talking about what happened last year [with elections] because I feel that we need to set our minds on going forward and one of the things that I wanted to establish going forward is impartiality. … We are responsible for representing the entire student body. We cannot allow our own reservations to cloud our judgment on how to best serve people.”
After candidates presented their platforms to the elections committee, the SGC went into an executive session and council members discussed the candidates for the elections committee in private. On Aug. 29, all candidates were notified of their confirmation to the committee, according to senior Carli McConnell, president of the student body.
The SGC then moved on to officer reports and McConnell said two of her goals for the semester are to improve engagement and ensure that senators and e-board members make continuous progress on their initiatives.
“[Sen] and I have touched base a lot about doing town halls and just getting more engaged with people, our constituents,” McConnell said.
Sen and sophomore Senate Chair Eleanor Paterson said they were both looking for assistants, who are usually senators that take on additional responsibility. Paterson said she will be studying abroad in Spring 2024 and is looking for an individual to take her place in her absence.
During the open agenda, sophomore Asata Rothblatt, Class of 2026 senator, said she is working on getting the Mental Health and Wellness Committee restarted and is looking for new members.
“This year is very important for the Mental Health and Wellness Committee because it stopped pretty much sometime before COVID,” Rothblatt said. “While we did get it recognized last year, which is a great step, this will be its first full year of running. … We need to have a bigger conversation about this with the student body.”
Paterson then went over the open senator positions that students can run for in the Fall 2023 elections cycle. The open positions include two Class of 2024 senators, a Class of 2025 senator, a Class of 2026 senator, two Class of 2027 senators, the School of Humanities and Sciences senator, the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance senator, the new first-generation senator position, the varsity athlete senator, the off-campus senator, the graduate senator and four senators-at-large.
Paterson encouraged everyone to spread the word about the Fall 2023 elections and said that a bill-writing workshop will be held after elections conclude.
“If you know anyone who falls into those categories … you should let them know about elections and how they open up on IC Engage,” Paterson said.
The SGC is the sole representative body for the Ithaca College student community. The SGC can be contacted at sgc@ithaca.edu.
