1 March 2010

Dear Constituents,

I was appointed on February 16 to the Senate and completed training on parliamentary procedure on the same day. I attended my first meeting that night where I voted on Special Services Council allocations for CEHS, KCF, and the Craft Club. We felt that CEHS was too similar to another club on campus so their allocation failed; however, the other two passed swimmingly. At the same meeting, the 2010 Office of Web Technologies Act was passed. It creates another office within USG to manage websites and technological aspects related to the organization. Most interestingly, the allocate system will be revamped next year as it will take place on-line and clubs and organizations would be able to keep track of all of their spending. I feel that this on-line system will be most beneficial to the campus community.

Additionally, we agreed to create an ad-hoc committee to investigate tuition increases and the PHEEIA bill that seeks to separate SUNY from the state coffer. Provost Kaler came to speak to us on February 23 and gave a presentation about the reasons why we should support PHEEIA. The main reasons are that it will set tuition increases at a consistent rate of 6-8% a year (instead of supporting quick hikes), we will receive 80% of our tuition back from the state if we separate ourselves, and we will have greater asset management. I personally am still undecided about whether PHEEIA is good for our school or not.

In any case, the tuition crisis may not be felt at Stony Brook but there are other SUNYs that are suffering right now as a result of limited funds; two SUNY schools are near bankruptcy and may be filing for it this year. As such, a coalition of students from SUNY Oneonta have put together a lobbying day in Albany called “SUNYPalooza: Spark SUNY.”  It will be held in Albany’s legislators’ offices on March 24 from 10am-4pm and students from all over the SUNY system will come together to talk to policymakers and rally on the steps of our state government. For anybody that is interested, feel free to contact any USG senator for more information.

As part of my duty to USG and to you, I am a member of two committees: Programming and Activities and Academic Affairs.  At the meetings for Programming and Activities, we have informally discussed people to perform at Brookfest. Any suggestions from the student body would be greatly appreciated. At Academic Affairs, we are considering sending students and/or our committee up to Albany for SUNYPalooza in hopes of swaying the government.

In any case, these are just a few things I have been working on in my short tenure.

All my best,

Jen Hand