The Allegheny Student Government began its general assembly with cabinet reports to bring updates about their work over the week and results from the budget hearings held over the weekend.

ASG commenced this week’s General Assembly at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in room 301/302 of the Henderson Campus Center.

Director of Diversity and Inclusion Jennifer Peralta, ’22, shared her progress with her project.

“I sent out some emails to the counseling center as well as career educations to come speak at the event that I am hosting,” Peralta said. “They will have a segment there but it’s all still in the works.”

Director of Student Affairs Elizabeth Graham, ’22, updated ASG on her current projects.

“We met this week to discuss our project with Career Education and the IDEAS Center,” Graham said. “Both departments are compiling resources they can provide and from that list we are going to get student feedback. We are also going to start working on a student life survey.”

Director of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs Andi Reiser, ’23, shared her progress with increasing sustainability on campus and her plans to utilize student feedback.

“This week I have been working on the water bottle refill stations,” Reiser said. “Right now I am working on getting a survey for student feedback to see where they would like to see them. I would like to start voting next week on the budget that I’d like.”

Attorney General Jack Parker, ’22, announced that Allegheny can have a golf club in addition to the golf team.

“This is a more recreational side of things and not as competitive, which I think is a great outlet for students to kind of get out and about,” Parker said. “There are a ton of golf courses in and around Meadville, so this is an awesome way to utilize the community.”

ASG approved the golf club for the first week unanimously. The club will need to be approved again next week in order to become official.

Chief of Staff Genesis Pena, ’22, announced a giveaway in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“This weekend we are doing a pink out for the football game for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so come to the game and wear pink,” Pena said. “We will be giving away some really cute pink stuff.”

Director of Finance Lucas Biniewski, ’23, confirmed the date for a financial education session meant to educate clubs about the financial process. He then announced the result of the emergency budget hearings.

“There will be a financial education session Nov. 10 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m and I will be sending out emails about it to club treasures and presidents.” Biniewski said. “(Alpha Phi Omega) received $2,950, Latinas on the Rise got $1,300, Phi Alpha Theta got $300, Why Not Us? got $3,585, (Black Girl Magic) $2,770, (Association of Caribbean Students) got $3,500, (African Student Association) got $4,920, Astronomy Club got $570, Green Students of Color Society got $450, (The Campus) got $2,500.”

Biniewski updated ASG on spending for the week.

“This week from finance is a good week with 18 requests,” Biniewski said. “From the general fund we have $4,254.83 and that consists of an Outing Club trip, volleyball t-shirts, bowling trip and the (Association for Computing Machinery) t-shirts. For the surplus fund we have $11,685 for new inventory for the fencing club and new Campus newspaper computers.”

President of the Class of 2023 Olivia Brophy updated ASG on class events and communication.

“This week we discussed our events for this semester and next semester,” Brophy said. “We also talked about some ways to improve communication between admin and students which is something we have heard huge complaints about.”

President of the Class of 2025, Abigail Estrada-Hernandez shared the comments and concerns of students at the Grounds For Change class event.

“We had our first event last week at GFC and we basically just had a lot of concerns and comments from our first-year clubs,” Hernandez said. “Some of the concerns were about having more flexibility with Munch Money for spending at campus stores and using meal swipes at McKinley’s. We also have been hearing that Brooks needs to have healthier options because a lot of the food is oily and greasy. Another comment was about diversity and increasing campus hygiene.”

The assembly then held a moderated discussion brought by the Class of 2025 about access to mental health resources on campus. The discussion was centered around potential solutions to the problem.

“I’ve had a conversation with one of the counselor’s and they’ve mentioned that it’s up to the counselors discretion how many appointments they think the person needs,” President of the Class of 2024 Kristen Cadham said.

President Noah Tart, ’22, updated ASG on the meetings they will have to discuss current campus issues.

“We will be meeting with Dr. Link for lunch this week to stress two very important issues,” Tart said. “We are going to talk about our perceptions about the campus climate right now and campus safety.”   

ASG decided to cancel GA for next week per the suggestion of Tart due to the upcoming mental health day and to give people the opportunity to get caught up on work.

The assembly was adjourned at 8:06 p.m.