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Syracuse University’s Student Association will hold its internal spring planning meeting on Dec. 4 to reflect on its fall programming and organize a schedule for the spring semester.

SA leaders will hold the planning session immediately before its regular general assembly meeting to tentatively establish new goals and programs for next semester.

SA Vice President Yasmin Nayrouz said the organization hopes to take inspiration from the success of some of its recent inaugural events, such as its Calentón Music Fest and Native Heritage Paint Workshop, in developing new initiatives moving forward.

“We had great cultural events to celebrate the diversity on our campus,” Nayrouz wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange. “We’re hoping to improve students’ sense of belonging on our campus through our programming.”

Eden Gardner, SA’s chair of community engagement and government affairs and vice president of SUNY ESF’s Mighty Oak Student Association, said SA is in the early stages of planning its annual Spring Into Action — a week of volunteer opportunities for SU and SUNY ESF students.

The event will follow a similar format to this past semester’s Fall Into Action week, which SA held from Nov. 4-12, Gardner said.

“We have a lot of great connections and systems in place for when we run Spring Into Action next year,” Gardner said.

Gardner said he was satisfied with the outcome of Fall Into Action, as SA successfully collected donations for the greater Syracuse community. SA hosted a Trick-or-Eat Food Drive with the New York Public Interest Research Group and gathered a total of 742 non-perishable goods for the Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry, Chet Guenther, a representative from NYPIRG, said during SA’s Nov. 14 meeting.

SA also plans to continue pushing the university’s sustainability goals — which SA and university officials collectively announced in April.

After its recent passing of a bill that established a Green Purchasing Guide for all future relevant legislation, SA plans to begin carrying out its own four-year plastic phaseout plan, which includes an internal auditing system for sustainability, Gardner said.

SA’s Sustainability Forum would like to establish a system to incentivize using the guide when writing internal purchasing bills, Gardner said.

“We’re still a new committee and definitely trying to get things up and running again,” Gardner said. “We’re really trying to increase campus awareness of sustainability as a whole.”

While preparing for the new semester, SA will continue to hold its ongoing student advocacy initiatives.

Every day this week, SA will distribute Sexual Violence Prevention Kits — including a drink cover, a set of 10 drink spiking detection tests, a portable door lock and a Birdie personal alarm — in the Schine Student Center. SA’s Donuts With The Dean and Residence Hall Clothing Drive events will also continue throughout the semester.

Nayrouz and SA President William Treloar said SA is actively using this semester’s student advocacy initiative models to inspire new goals in the spring. They also said SA members will continue meeting with administrators to address student concerns with on-campus facilities, such as transportation and dining services.

“We saw some great progress towards a lot of our advocacy initiatives,” Treloar said. “We were extremely pleased with our fall semester programming.”

Treloar also said addressing student engagement on campus will be a priority for SA in the upcoming spring semester, particularly as the student body transitions out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This new class came in with an incredible engagement,” Treloar said. “We hope to continually improve that and bring back a sense of campus community.”

Published on November 26, 2023 at 10:51 pm

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu