With the semester nearing a close, the FUSA Senate has reached a point where it has begun to plan for next year. With the adoption of a new constitution and the appointment of a new Senate Chair and Vice-Chair, the groundwork for next year’s success has been laid.
At the FUSA Senate meeting on Sunday, Frank Fioretti, a junior senator, was voted as the Senate Chair for the 2009-2010 year and classmate Spencer Thibodeau was elected as Vice-Chair. Two new positions were created for next year and the student judicial system was revamped.
‘I am very happy for Frank,’ said FUSA President Jeff Seiser, who was re-elected on Tuesday. ‘It was a very good night for the students. Frank has a strong understanding of the issues and the Senate, with a lot of experience.’
‘He has a lot of goals and a lot of ways to accomplish them,’ Seiser added.
Seiser also said that he has a strong relationship with Fioretti, which will help them work together and achieve their goals.
Senate Chair Dan Lamendola ’09 also is pleased with the choice of Fioretti and Thibodeau, who both can help push students to participate in FUSA.
‘It can’t just be 38 people voting,’ Lamendola said. ‘The senators have to be out there talking to people to know how to represent them.’
The goal of FUSA next year, according to both Seiser and Fioretti, will be to improve the organization’s visibility among students, building upon an already strengthened relationship between FUSA and the administration, which was the goal of FUSA this year.
‘My goals for next year are to build on the foundation that has been set up over this year,’ Fioretti said. ‘One thing that we have been able to do is gain respect from the administration. I would like to gain the respect of the student body at large.
‘Senate has made great changes and taken great strides to being more effective and efficient of an organization, but we can only do so much per year,’ he added.
Fioretti said that he plans to improve communication both within and outside of FUSA, along with stabilizing the relationship between the executive branch and the Senate.
‘FUSA as a whole can be a much more effective body and would ‘step on each others feet’ less often,’ said Fioretti.
Seiser would also like to see an increased visibility by FUSA members and plans to improve training methods for how FUSA members can market themselves and the organization to the rest of the campus.
‘We would like to use creative ways to market the organization,’ Seiser said. ‘Like YouTube, Facebook and by creating an e-mail list to send out FUSA news.’
The new constitution has created two new positions which Seiser will appoint, as a way to ‘better define the roles within FUSA,’ according to Seiser.
The first position is the secretary of marketing and public relations, which is a way of better reflecting what was the job of the secretary of communications, held by Jordan Hummel ’10 this past year. The new position will work to market the organization to students, as well as deal with student media.
The second position is the secretary of the interior, a job that will help build community within FUSA, by organizing community builders and training. Seiser said that the role will ‘make FUSA more fun.’
Another change will be the reduction of the number of senators from 10 to eight per class, because the current number of senators provides to many people with not enough work to go around.
The student judicial branch has also been changed, as it will now be moved from under FUSA to under the dean of students office, which will allow the judiciary council to work on more important cases than just parking violations and minor infractions.
Students can now choose to have an advocate join them in meetings with the dean’s office, while some cases will be heard before the peer conduct board, instead of the dean.
In addition, the judges will be responsible for elections, including the events before the election such as debates, and the marketing of the election itself.
‘The advisor would be an advocate,’ said Seiser. ‘More of a lawyer than a judge, the advisor would guide the person through the judiciary process.’
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