The Hamilton College Student Assembly (SA) has had an exciting first half of the spring semester! Under the leadership of the new President Emily Jiang ’25 and Vice President Marvin Lopez ’23, they have begun and completed initiatives ranging from bringing dogs to campus to restructuring student organization funding. Below we have listed some of the goals they have achieved so far, as well as some things that are still in the works!
As of now, we have a few new representatives joining us for the spring: Class Presidents Joe Maalouf ’23 and Adina Mujica ’24, and Class Representatives Tommy Keith ’22, Matthew Sinning ’23, Rafael Osella ’23 and Evelyn Molina ’23. Our new executive board consists of President Emily Jiang ’25, Vice President Marvin Lopez ’23, Parliamentarian Allison Sheehan ’23, Treasurer Felix Tager ’23, Publicity Director Max Ganem ’25, Secretary Raymond Ni ’24 and Org Relations Chair Alexandra Kropaneva ’25.
Along with the Campus Activities Board (CAB) and Student Activities, SA representatives on the Student Activities Fee Committee (SAFC) have created a slew of documents pertaining to student organization funding and the Student Activities Fee. Principal contributors include Treasurer Tager, President Jiang, Vice President Lopez, Parliamentarian Sheehan and Class President Maalouf.
In these SAFC documents, we have laid the groundwork for the creation of a Traditions Fund that organizations will be able to apply to for funding for repeating tradition events. In conjunction with the SAFC initiatives, Student Assembly (led by Treasurer Tager and the Treasury department) has secured a trial run of annual rollovers for SA funds in preparation for an eventual transition to an agency fund. This change will allow student organizations to have greater freedom, control and efficiency in their spending and allocation of funds.
President Jiang and Vice President Lopez worked together with advisor Noelle Juliano to hire consultant Nancy Hunter Denney and put together a one-day retreat for all Assembly members to work together on leadership, vision, bonding, cooperation and planning for the future, which has markedly increased dedication, contribution and knowledge in leadership afterwards. Consultant Denney is on retainer for the rest of the semester as the Assembly gets back into the swing of things.
The Health Committee, in collaboration with the Wellness Center, worked together to organize a “Paws for Relaxation” event in the Filius Events Barn the week before spring break. This project was spearheaded by Michelle Estrella-Dominguez ’24. We hope you had fun getting to spend time with the dogs!
Publicity Director Ganem designed and ordered SA sweaters for this year so that representatives can more publicly display their commitment and availability as SA members. Please feel free to come up to anyone wearing an SA sweatshirt!
Student Assembly has set up weekly tables at Diner with merch, postcards and public comment stations in order to increase engagement with the community. Stop by Wednesdays 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Fridays 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.! This initiative was led by Vice President Lopez.
Working with Dean of Students Terry Martinez and the rest of the executive board, President Jiang has registered Hamilton’s SA for the American Student Government Association (ASGA). ASGA helps representatives access more data and resources for improving their student governments, as well as securing access to conferences and lectures for representatives to learn about their roles and meet with peers in student governments across the country.
SA has nominated, deliberated on and/or confirmed about a dozen students to Honor Court, Judicial Board, college committees
and trustee committees. These students, most of whom are not Assembly members, will be helping make decisions and give student representation on both student-centered and college-wide topics.
Some of the work currently in progress by President Jiang
and President Mujica consists of the crafting a new land acknowledgment and programing to build a genuine relationship with the Onieda Nation via the Shenandoah-Kirkland Initiative (SKI).
In the meantime, the old land acknowledgment has been removed from meetings so as not to be disingenuous.
President Jiang is working with the new library archivist to install as many SA records (minutes, agendas, etc.) as possible into the college archives for safekeeping and future reference.
In conjunction, Vice President Lopez and Publicity Director Ganem are working to revamp the SA website and make it more clear, accessible and representative of our current Assembly.
Class President Maalouf is working with Library and IT Services (LITS) to increase printer accessibility and availability on campus. Maalouf and the other Class of 2023 representatives are also planning a Class of 2023 barbecue and other class bonding events.
Parliamentarian Sheehan and the Constitutional Review Committee are working on revamping the Constitution to make it more legible, useful and pertinent for future Assemblies.
President Jiang has begun an initiative to put together and create resources to support marginalized students, including templates for emails and lists of resources. There are also other initiatives in place to address discrimination and harassment on campus.
The Executive Board is putting together wellness packages for all students, aiming to send them out in April. The goal of those packages is to energize and reward students for all the hard work in the final push to the end of the academic year, and help bring a little bit of joy to what can be a very stressful time.We have secured contributions from the Wellness Center, CAB, WHCL, the President’s Office, the Dean of Students Office, Alumni Relations and various small businesses around Clinton, including the Cremeria and Rainbow Cupboard.
Simultaneously, the Justice & Equity Committee has worked with Opportunity Programs Director Aaron Ray in facilitating conversation among class years to make changes to the summer program.
Thank you all for your support and your faith in us. As your student government, we are honored to be representing you. As always, we would love to hear from you. SA has tables at Diner on Wednesdays and Fridays, and a form for public comments is sent out every week in your emails. We welcome in-person public comments at meetings as well. Additionally, your representatives (listed on the SA website) are open to chatting about anything and everything! If you have any questions, please feel free to email a representative or the Student Assembly general email account ([email protected]). We are excited to continue serving you!