The Ithaca College Student Governance Council (SCG) met May 6 to have its first meeting with the newly elected members of SGC and hold confirmations for the positions of senate chair, club athlete senator and senator-at-large.
Before confirmations were held, sophomore Rishabh Sen, who will be president of the student body for the 2024–25 academic year, explained that confirmations are a way to join the senate without going through the election process. Sen said that if the position is not filled during elections, the senate deliberates and decides if they will confirm the candidate.
Senate chair confirmation
Sophomore Senate Chair Nikki Sutera was confirmed to be senate chair for the next academic year. Sophomore Eleanor Paterson, Class of 2026 senator for the 2024–25 academic year, also ran for senate chair. Both presented their platforms before the SGC went into an executive session to discuss the final vote.
Sutera presented her platform first, explaining that she has experience working within the SGC as the senator for the School of Music, Theater, and Dance and through her current position as senate chair. She said her experience has helped her learn how to communicate effectively and understand the responsibilities of being a leader.
Sutera said she believes the position of senate chair requires a genuine care for the well-being of the senators and members of the executive board.
“I have said before that the most important part of this position is the fact that as senate chair, your work is representing the senators,” Sutera said. “I care very deeply about all the senators [and] about this organization. I was so blessed and honored to have the opportunity to work one-on-one with these senators. And I just want to continue cultivating an environment where everyone feels safe and welcome.”
Paterson elaborated on her experience working with the council and explained that as senate chair, she would like to prepare for the biannual review of the SGC constitution, have a diverse range of guest speakers, make the on-boarding process for new council easier for everyone involved and invite student organizations to speak with the SGC on a more official level.
Senate confirmations
Sophomore Marshall Long presented his platform for the club athlete senator position. Long’s platform focused on inclusion of transgender students in club sports and athletics. He said he did not know about the position of club athlete senator until elections were happening and only reached out to the SGC about the position after elections were held.
Long said he wants to ensure the protection of transgender students in athletics and provide a safe space for transgender students to be involved in athletics.
“It’s really important to — it’s not already in [the] written legislation to provide more protections for trans students with club sports,” Long said. “Especially because there’s not a lot we can do about NCAA regulations. Providing a space on campus for trans students to still be able to participate in athletic activities is [an issue] that’s important to me.”
Sen asked how Long’s experience on the e-board for the club softball team helped prepare him for the position.
Long said that he is the social media manager for the team and that the role has given him experience in reaching out to people, effectively communicating the needs of the club and practicing professionalism.
Sophomore Paris Agiomavritis and first-year student Joslyn Forcione, former senator of the School of Humanities and Sciences, presented their platforms for senator-at-large positions.
Agiomavritis originally ran for the position of vice president of business and finance during elections and lost to Junior Kathi Hode. Agiomavritis said her accounting major and her experience working with the financials for different groups on campus helps give her the skill of reading financial statements easily, which she believes is beneficial for a senator-at-large. She said her platform as a senator-at-large will focus on sustainability and AI use in the college.
“My goals [as senator-at-large] are to adapt to what student’s needs are,” Agiomavritis said. “I work as a tutor. So, I deal with students that are struggling to students that are succeeding. I hear a wide range of things. [I can] kind of adapt appropriately to need and that’s why I chose senator-at-large.”
Forcione, who ran against first-year Yusef Scott-Wetherbee for the position of vice president of academic affairs during the elections and lost, applied for senator-at-large. She said her platform seeks to improve students’ quality of life and to ensure academic equity for students. She mentioned her experience with multiple committees, such as the Campus Affairs Committee (CAC), the scholarship committee and the academic policy committee, helped her understand the intricacies of being on the council, including community outreach and getting a bill passed.
“When I was working with CAC, we learned [about] some things that people are unhappy with that they would like to change,” Forcione said. “One thing is accessibility on campus. I would venture to say that we are not an extremely physically accessible campus. That’s something that I would like to work on.”
Sen declared an open agenda after confirmations and made an announcement to the council to keep an eye out for elections in the Fall 2024 semester.
“One of the first things on our docket will be Fall elections, which means that we’re going to want to get [students] excited about SGC and interested in those positions,” Sen said.
The SGC is the sole representative body for the Ithaca College student community. The SGC can be contacted at [email protected].
