The Associated Student body met on Friday in the Student Center to discuss various campus issues. Sonoma State University’s director of sustainability, Paul Draper, began the meeting as he presented a mission statement in favor of making SSU a more sustainable campus in the upcoming years.
Draper, through much of his presentation talked about the need to address creating a more sustainable world as climate change becomes more and more of an issue. In his mission statement, he presented both a two-year and a five-year plan for what he wants to see on campus.
In his presentation, Draper addressed the senate on what we need to do in order to make SSU a more sustainable campus. Though no voting on the issue took place, if it does get passed in the future, the statement declares a set plan to achieve 90-100 percent composting from all campus buildings.
In addition to that, Draper hopes that by the time the five-year plan is implemented, SSU will have hired a permanent, full-time director of sustainability.
Draper, in response to how his meeting went, said, “They [senate] were incredibly receptive and gracious. The questions they asked were great, and I definitely noticed a desire from the senate to get students involved.”
After his presentation, the Associated Students unanimously passed the financial audit statement of the 2013-14 fiscal year.
Adam Rosenkranz, the vice president of finance, said in response to the senate’s decision to pass the motion, “The Associated Students is extremely proud to have been issued an unmodified opinion on the presentation of our 2013-14 audited financial statements.”
The next item on the agenda for AS was to find a resolution on the expansion of Walmart in Rohnert Park. This is an ongoing issue and with new developments pertaining to the matter coming to light, the Associated Students decided to table this topic until everything was resolved.
Though this issue was tabled there, other community topics were also addressed. Kian Khatami, who is head of community affairs, said, “We’ve met with police chiefs of Rohnert Park and Cotati to help them alleviate some of the risks that exist in the community.”
After this was addressed, senators were given the opportunity to present issues that they had or problems they felt needed the attention of the student body. There was a unanimous understanding that the senate needed to focus on single issues at once, rather than on multiple topics.
Certain members voiced their concern that not enough was getting done and that in order for things to get done fast, they needed all their energy and attention to go toward fewer topics simultaneously.
As the meeting entered its latter stages, AS needed to approve the consent calendar. During this portion, the board unanimously passed the appointment of Brandon Mercer to Campus Re-engineering Committee, Dae-Sung Kim to the Fee Advisory Board and Luke Tesluk to the Student Health Advisory Committee.
It was business as usual for AS. All matters were addressed in a timely matter and once they had been taken care of, they went into officer reports and then adjourned.
