As salsa music played from an adjacent terrace, S.A. members eschewed the formalities in favor of a more relaxed atmosphere at Thursday’s meeting, the last of the academic school year.
S.A. members deliberated the last resolutions of the year, including resolutions to denounce white supremacist imagery at county fairs, to establish formal relationships between committees and administrators, to create an ad-hoc committee to investigate student absence policy reform and to restructure how executive offices recruit staff.
Assembly representatives also passed a resolution sponsored by Vice President of Finance Dale Barbaria ’19 to amend language in Appendix A of the Student Assembly charter in anticipation of the 2019 funding byline cycle, addressing the final vote on appropriations committee recommendations.
At one point, Assembly members voted on a resolution in a less conventional fashion — walking through the door of the Memorial Room to vote “yes,” and walking through the door to the terrace to vote “no.”
All five of the resolutions were passed by the assembly after lengthy deliberation.
After the meeting, S.A. president and graduating senior Varun Devatha ’19 reflected on his time with the Student Assembly.
“I feel very bittersweet,” Devatha said. “The assembly has been almost like a baby to me and I’m excited to see where it grows and where it goes in the future.”
Barbaria and College of Human Ecology representative Omar Din ’19 echoed Devatha’s point.
“I loved it … I had a great time on the assembly. There were ups and downs, but it feels good to do things that impact students,” said Din.
Barbaria had advice for incoming and future S.A. members.
“There’s a lot of annoying stuff when you’re serving on the SA and sometimes there are days that make you wanna quit,” he said. “You should always feel like you’re in the right place, like you’re empowered to make the decisions you need to make, because you’ve signed up for it and you can do a good job.”