Following the report on a Greek life “machine” in the Assembly, a divisive Interim Expressive Activity Policy and campus tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, the Student Assembly faced unprecedented challenges throughout the 2023-2024 academic year.
Now, S.A. President Zora deRham ’27 and S.A. Executive Vice President Adam Vinson ’25 are trying to rebuild Cornellians’ trust in the Assembly. In an interview with The Sun, deRham and Vinson outlined their plans to foster an Assembly culture shift, slow down the legislative process and increase student resources.
Instituting a Culture Shift
One of deRham’s main priorities is facilitating more “human” moments between its members by providing opportunities to connect on a more personal level.
deRham hopes building internal cooperation will signal a broader shift in culture within the Assembly as the foundation for regaining the trust of the student body.
Vinson said that he aims to “improve community relations” by increasing outreach from the Assembly to the public.
Both deRham and Vinson emphasized that many of the people involved in last year’s S.A. controversies are no longer affiliated with the Assembly, with some graduating and others withdrawing from or failing to win re-election.
Last March, The Sun exposed that the Assembly’s former Assembly vice president of finance, Rocco DeLorenzo ’24 secretly planned to block resolutions pertaining to gender issues and women’s health and defend the interests of fraternities.
In April, former executive vice president Claire Ting ’25 was disqualified from the presidential race after an investigation from the S.A. Elections Committee determined Ting provided internal Assembly communications to The Dispatch, a progressive student publication that is no longer active.
Among the current members of the Assembly include Getulio González-Mulattieri ’25, an undesignated representative. The Sun reported last April that a group of first-year women were allegedly harassed by González-Mulattieri, then 35, with repeated, unwanted advances and suggestive comments. González-Mulattieri has no plans of stepping down and has faced no charges or form of punishment by the S.A.
S.A. leadership is working on legislative-based ways to prevent further controversies.
“I know there’s a lot of assembly members who disagree with each other when it comes to politics,” Vinson said. “I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure that it doesn’t get personal and ugly between them, because that’s sort of where … these sorts of things … start and snowball into what happened last year.”
Vinson explained that the Assembly is currently collaborating with the Office of Ethics, an independent body, to revisit the S.A.’s Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics was originally written as a living document but was last updated on May 5, 2022.
At the start of the semester, the Assembly passed Resolution 2, which established “deputy” positions where officers can appoint a new member and merged three leadership groups — which included the executive board, cabinet and committee — into one executive board. The resolution was deemed “unethical” by The Office of Ethics.
Vinson reflected that it is important to institute a more comprehensive ethics code.
“The ethics code has not been updated in a long time,” Vinson said. “We are going to be making an edit to it to expand it, which will hopefully sort of act as a deterrent to stop behavior like that in the future.”
deRham also noted that she plans to engage with the student body throughout her time in leadership.
“I plan to just be accessible by not locking myself in some tower and just being so job-centered that I forget to walk around campus,” deRham said. “My email is always open — I’m super excited to hear from anyone who wants to reach out, anyone who has any comments both enthusiastic and perhaps critical of whatever may come to mind.”’
Pacing the Legislative Process
The S.A. is also considering adjusting its timeline for passing resolutions to give members more time to process proposed resolutions.
“I don’t think it’s anything negative to slow down our thought process and our resolutions process and everything, and just one step at a time that makes sense,” deRham said.
deRham noted that the Assembly typically passes more resolutions than any other University shared-governance body. During the 2023-2024 school year, the S.A. discussed 79 resolutions out of 94 total resolutions between the four assemblies. In comparison, the Employee Assembly considered four resolutions, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly considered eight resolutions and the University Assembly considered three resolutions.
deRham said slowing down the resolution passing process would add “a level of responsibility for the products” from the Assembly since members can analyze the material and ask questions.
“Instead of completing the 70+ resolutions per year, because we’re rushing through them … some ideas could be combined into one big idea or some ideas could be more fleshed out before they’re actually submitted,” deRham said.
Vinson believes that streamlining the resolution process will help restore the student body’s trust in the S.A. However, he does not believe this goal and deRham’s are contradictory.
“We can slow down the schedule itself, but we can increase the volume at which we are producing resolutions,” Vinson said. “And I think the way you do that is simply to give Assembly members the resources they need.”
Vinson noted that it was mostly the same people passing resolutions last year. He hopes that connecting newer assembly members to administration officials, past data and committee leads during the legislative process will broaden the number of members passing resolutions.
“One of the reasons I felt I was able to be very successful last year was because I was able to talk with people who’ve been there years before and were able to advise me, and I’d like to do that with a lot of the newer representatives,” Vinson said.
Increasing Student Resources
deRham hopes to pilot a seminar program on the transition to adulthood with the S.A.’s resources. Sample seminars would teach students how to file for insurance reimbursements or how to complete their taxes.
Both deRham and Vinson said that reinstating Trillium as a meal swipe dining option was a top priority during their campaigns.
“The way that I would handle it is probably back end work, behind the scenes, work for a couple weeks, and then move into formulating a written idea that can then go to resolution and then go through our various channels,” deRham said.
Vinson also mentioned that he is working to provide Naloxone and other crucial emergency response resources to organizations on campus. Discussions and collaborations on a resolution are in the beginning stages, so it could be months before the resolution is formally voted on.
As the school year is just beginning, deRam is hesitant to make promises she can’t keep.
“There have been some bigger initiatives that have been discussed in the Student Assembly,” deRham shared. “But sometimes … I’m a little apprehensive to make far-reaching promises on my own, I’d rather that be stuff that I pursue with the executive board or with other members, just to make sure that they can actually happen.”