After two postponements due to Winter Storm Juno, the Boston University Student Government Senate held its first meeting of the semester Sunday to confirm members of the Executive Board and continue working on its main campaigns.
SG President Joe Ferme received 30 votes and two abstentions for his confirmation. Josh Mosby, the executive vice president, and Will Horne, the vice president of finance, were both confirmed with 29 votes and one abstention, respectively.
“I look forward to having the opportunity to serve [Senate] and the entire student body,” said Ferme, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, during his confirmation speech.
Senate also chose College of Engineering junior Matthew Farmer and School of Management sophomore Louis Vitti as judicial commissioners and Spencer Hilton as election commissioner for the student elections commission.
“[It’s] kind of my first opportunity to get involved in it [Senate] in BU [and] oversee how everything goes,” Vitti said.
During his speech, Ferme spoke about the development of the 16,000 Strong campaign and a workshop with the One Love Foundation to increase awareness on sexual assault.
Ferme encouraged the Senate to be efficient in the next 13 weeks and participate in outreach programs.
“You all have constituents. It really comes down to your reaching out, and hopefully we get some students to know what we’re doing,” he said in his address.
Three senators proposed the formation of three new committees: rules, orientation and election oversight. The committees were passed with 28 votes and two abstentions. Committee heads will be chosen at the next meeting.
Robbie Brussell, SG’s director of communication and leader of the Expect More campaign, proposed $370 worth of advertising in Warren Towers and the BU Shuttle that will run for two weeks. The proposal passed with 30 votes and one abstention.
During open forum, Claire Richer, a representative from Students for a Just and Stable Future, proposed an initiative for BU to divest from fossil fuels. Richer requested Senate put a referendum on the ballot in the upcoming elections asking whether or not to divest from fossil fuels.
Senate Chair Stephen Chang said Senate has been in contact with the head of the student divestment group DivestBU and is trying to include them in next meeting’s agenda.
“We’re working with them to formulate language, so we get something that’s fair, something that the students want and something that will actually work,” said Chang, a junior in CAS.
Ferme said divestment is a controversial issue and there has been a lot of research and statistics on both sides of the issue.
“We want to make sure that we’re right in the middle,” he said.
Chang said he was glad people attended the meeting despite setbacks from the storm and was optimistic about the work that will be done this semester.
“I’m impressed with the senators. [They have] a lot of dedication. They’re good to work with [and there was] a lot of involvement from the people,” he said. “We have committees starting, so we’re about to dig deeper, look into details, making sure that we do things that matter and trying to get our brand out there and making sure that Student Government actually does work and allocating money properly.”
Austin Kruger, a senator for the Student Athletic Advisory Council, said he found the idea of holding a referendum helpful to the members of Senate.
“It’s really good that proposals could go on a referendum and on a ballot while at the same time there has to be a set of rules in place that says basically what the process it. That sometimes is missing from SG,” said Kruger, a junior in CAS. “There’s never been a referendum that happened before, so I think that there should be a clear set of rules talking about how it should be done in the future so that other proposals can get on the ballot.”
Kruger said he was one of the senators who abstained confirmation for some of the new positions because he feels unjust confirming someone who did not run for a position.
“A lot of people ran for [a] position, and I feel like it wouldn’t be just to confirm someone who didn’t run,” he said. “I just didn’t think that it was right just to confirm whoever.”
Chloe Hite, a Myles Standish Residence Hall Association senator, said the first meeting of the semester was well-organized and the newly confirmed E-Board members show experience with the system.
“They all seemed really qualified. It seemed like they have fresh ideas,” said Hite, a sophomore in CAS. “They’re experienced in terms of working with administrators and Senate, and they seemed like they come from leadership backgrounds.”
