The Allegheny Student Government approved a constitutional amendment this week during their regular General Assembly on Tuesday, Dec. 5. and a special session called Wednesday, Dec. 6. The votes cap several weeks of debate on reform to ASG’s financial system, which some senators have said puts too much pressure on a single student.
The amendment, proposed by all four senators for the Class of 2025, splits the treasurer position into two different positions: A co-director of finance, and a co-director of treasury. The finance director will lead the Finance Committee, while the treasury director will “manage the funds of ASG and ASG-recognized organizations,” according to the amendment.
Both positions will be jointly responsible for completing club finance requests, monitor for any finance infractions and review ASG’s Finance Guidelines.
“I feel like having two positions would help smooth things out,” Senator Lyndsey Robinson, ’24, who sits on the Finance Committee, said during the Tuesday meeting.
After the meeting, Senator Ray Colabawalla, ’25, one of the co-sponsors of the amendment, explained that the positions were aimed at preventing backlogs in club finance requests. He said that the finance director would be more focused on the decision-making process in committee, while the treasury director would handle most of the paperwork and emails.
“That way it sort of distinguishes the more technical aspect of the job from the less technical aspect,” Colabawalla said during the meeting.
In order to balance the workload between the two positions, the treasury director would be encouraged, but not required, to attend Finance Committee meetings.
The Senate’s discussion also moved into the question of recruitment; Senator Katie Wagner, ’24 asked if expanding the cabinet was a good idea given a steady decline in Allegheny’s enrollment numbers.
“I do kind of wonder — as clubs and organizations on campus have more issues, as we are shrinking, getting and retaining membership — if expanding ASG, when it’s already getting harder to get people to join stuff, is the most sustainable option,” Wagner said.
In reply, Colabawalla said that he already had a pair of nominees in mind.

“I’m hoping to speak to … the person that applied and the person that left from the position prior, and ask them to see whether they would be interested in it still,” Colabawalla said. “Especially considering the person that left, left because the workload is too much, and so now that issue has been addressed and hopefully the other person that applied can now reapply to the position since it’s changed.”
Former Director of the Treasury Hunter Goerman, ’25, left the position in early November and declined to comment on his departure at the time.
Goerman did not respond to a request for comment.
Andrew Strobel, ’24, has been the only student to apply to be treasurer in the month since Goerman stepped down, but was not approved for the seat at the Nov. 14 meeting. Senators shot down Strobel’s nomination in favor of working on the constitutional amendment.
Ordinarily Strobel would not be able to reapply for the treasurer position, since he was already voted down once. However, since the treasury position has been changed by the constitutional amendment, it is considered two new and distinct seats, and Strobel would be eligible to run for either of them this year.
Strobel was in attendance at both the Tuesday, Dec. 5, and Wednesday, Dec. 6, meetings, but did not speak during either. After the Tuesday GA, he told The Campus he was not interested in either of the new treasury seats.
“I have committed to a couple projects for the Center for Business and Economics to improve the CBE fellowship program, so unfortunately I can’t devote the required time to do this,” Strobel said. “I thank the student government for hearing me out as a candidate and wish them the best of luck in the candidate search.”
Who will ultimately fill the two positions is therefore still unclear; during the Dec. 5 meeting, ASG Vice President Sam Ault, ’26, said that no other students had applied for the still-vacant treasurer position.
ASG also heard a broad question from one of their own. Class of 2026 President Lorenzo Scarnati arrived towards the end of the meeting and was already represented by a proxy. So, Scarnati spoke up during the constituent comment period to point out that many members of ASG agreed that Strobel was qualified during the Nov. 28 General Assembly.
“It seems that we’ve turned him down in favor of the amendment because we deemed it was too much work for one person,” Scarnati said. “And I think it’s unfair in a sense — and we should consider this in the future — that we turned somebody down based on their perceived capability to be in this position.”
Scarnati added that different treasurers would have different ways of handling the workload.
“Who knows?” Scarnati said. “You could have somebody in the position … they could have boosted efficiency by 300%. Instead of taking 15 hours or eight hours, however long it takes, maybe it takes this person three, or maybe it takes them 20. You simply don’t know. And I hope we keep this in consideration for whoever comes before Senate in the future.”

Special Session
The called meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 6, seemed less like a formality, and more a callback to the pandemic era. Because the meeting was held over videoconference, ASG had to handle both parliamentary procedure and connectivity problems — the latter of which stunted the eight minutes of discussion that took place before the final vote.
After Colabawalla started the discussion, Recio Bremer digitally raised her hand to speak. After being called on and testing her microphone, the meeting fell silent for more than a minute due to unspecified technical difficulties. When Recio Bremer was able to speak again, she reintroduced the question of how ASG would fill two seats when the body struggled to fill one.
“Recruiting is something that we have had a problem in the past with,” Recio Bremer said. “Having one position, we only had one applicant. How do you guys think that’s gonna turn out when we now open two positions? What is the consensus of Senate; if you guys decide to vote on this amendment in favor, how are we gonna manage that issue?”
Colabawalla replied that splitting the position in two and shrinking individuals’ workload would make students less afraid to apply, and that the amendment was specifically written to allow past applicants to try again.
“I don’t think that having one extra position is going to be that much more detrimental in our efforts to fill it,” Colabawalla said. “I think that with an earnest and diligent effort, we can definitely fill the position.”
Scarnati was also called on to speak, but was immediately disconnected from the meeting. By the time he rejoined, Scarnati was unable to unmute himself, and the time for the discussion had expired.
Of the 18 senators currently in office, 14 attended the Wednesday meeting, and 11 voted for the amendment in the meeting’s chat box. The remaining three did not appear to file a vote.
The final vote will be recorded in the meeting’s minutes. However, minutes from neither meeting were posted to Engage by 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Other business
During her weekly cabinet report on Tuesday, Director of Sustainability Bianca Sanchez, ’24, announced that she would be stepping down from her position.
“After today, I will be resigning from my position this semester,” Sanchez said. “It was very nice working with everyone.”
In an email to The Campus on Wednesday, Sanchez cited her heavy workload as a senior for her departure.
“Due to personal circumstances I felt it was best for me to resign and allow myself a break next semester and someone else to contribute better to ASG than myself,” Sanchez wrote. “I enjoyed being apart of cabinet and working with everyone in ASG. As far as I am aware, applications will be advertised starting early next semester. I do hope my work I started this semester as the Director of Sustainability & Environmental Affairs continues after I am done this semester.”
During their report Tuesday, Director of Organizational Development V O’Connor-Belcher, ’26, said that ASG’s formal — planned for Sunday, Dec. 10 — was canceled.
“None of the venues we reached out to would host for us,” O’Connor-Belcher said. “Instead, there will be cookies and punch at the same time formal was meant to be.”
In Unfinished Business, ASG approved constitutions for both the Neuroscience Club and Commuter and Crawford County Student Association — known as C3SA — for their second rounds of voting. The two organizations now become the 117th and 118th student organizations on campus, according to a review of the college’s Engage database.
ASG will meet again on 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 12, in CC 301/302 of the Henderson Campus Center for their final meeting of the semester.