SA announces first annual Green Innovation Competition

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Syracuse University’s Student Association announced details for its first annual Green Innovation Competition during its Monday meeting.

Students will have the opportunity to present their sustainability research project proposals to address on-campus sustainability concerns on April 8, according to its website. The winner will receive a $15,000 grant to allocate to the university department of their choice, which will use the funds to implement the winning proposal’s suggestions.

Olivia Curreri, SA’s vice president of university affairs, said the idea for the competition originated from a suggestion in SA’s Dec. 2022 sustainability report, which led the university and the association to release updated sustainability goals in April 2023. The Sustainability Forum — a committee of SUNY ESF and SU students dedicated to developing sustainability projects — is working to launch this initiative, she said.

“(The Sustainability Forum) is soliciting creative and innovative solutions to address sustainability problems on campus,” Curreri said. “We want students to take a look and see what the problems are … then identify a university department that is relevant to the problem.”

SA voted to approve $6,000 in additional grant funds during Monday’s meeting, which Curreri said would award the second and third-place winners with a $5,000 and $1,000 grant, respectively. The deadline for registration is March 8 with final proposals due on April 1.

The association also approved its “student safety concerns” and “improving syllabi access and classroom affordability” bills.

SA’s “student safety concerns” bill, which President William Treloar first presented during its Feb. 12 meeting and was approved Monday, will urge the university to implement several improvements to improve students’ feelings of safety on campus. This includes a greater DPS presence near off-campus student housing and increased lighting on common walking paths, he said.

Treloar told The Daily Orange SA developed the bill through its collaboration with SU administrators. During Monday’s meeting, he said SA leaders had met with Dean of Students Sheriah Dixon to discuss safety as well as other concerns, such as students’ reaction to the recent decrease in Google Drive storage and changes to the “contacted by conduct” process.

SA also voted and approved its “classroom affordability” bill, which asks the university to encourage teachers to provide students with syllabus access ahead of registration and utilize more affordable course materials.

“(The bill) addresses teachers making their syllabus more accessible ahead of time and textbook affordability … such as using the library instead of having books that are fifties to hundreds of dollars,” SA Speaker Kennedy Williams said.

SA leaders have regularly met with SU administrators throughout the year to address student feedback for several university departments, including transportation and food services. Yasmin Nayrouz, SA’s vice president, said the recent decision to extend operating hours of the Euclid Loop of SU’s ‘Cuse Trolley program resulted from SA’s collaboration with administrators from the Parking and Transportation Services department.

During his committee update report, Richard Maj, SA’s speaker pro-tempore, emphasized SA committee’s collaboration with administrators. Maj discussed the work of SA’s Academic Affairs Committee to bring its Donuts with the Dean initiative back for the spring semester and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s goal of increasing “pronoun transparency” across campus.

SA also appointed a new deputy chief justice and class of 2027 representative for the SU Alumni Association.

Sierra Huff, an SU senior and former associate justice of SA’s supreme court, will now be the new deputy chief justice for the duration of the spring semester. Aidan Lindgren, a freshman mechanical engineering major, was appointed to represent his class in SUAA.

Huff said she had served as an associate justice since November 2022. In her new role, she said she wants to ensure that all members are putting the appropriate “time and effort” into their respective positions.

With the appointment of Huff as deputy chief justice, SA now has two open positions on its supreme court, Maj said.

Other business:

• SA is continuing to hold information sessions for its spring 2023 general elections. Otto Sutton, the association’s Board of Elections chair, said attendance at one meeting is required for SA’s consideration of a potential candidate’s petition. SA will hold its last two sessions on Feb. 22 and 28.
• Jack McCarty, SA’s engagement and outreach chair, said the organization plans to release a weekly blog that will highlight a “student success story.” The blog, titled “The Torch: Lighting Up Student Success,” will serve as a “pipeline” between student conversation and legislation, he said.
• SA approved funding for several of its Spring Into Action initiatives, including its hygiene-kit building for InterFaith Works and its “Ready Jar making event” in collaboration with SUNY ESF’s Alpha Xi Sigma honor society.
• The New York Public Interest Research Group will host a “forum to end medical debt in New York” tomorrow at Beauchamp Branch Library, Chet Guenther, NYPIRG’s SU and SUNY ESF project coordinator, said.