Rowan University’s Student Government Association (SGA) held its second meeting of the semester on Feb. 17. While the last meeting on Feb. 3 was more of a constituent-style meeting, this one went back to the usual SGA meeting format.

The main topic of the student concern portion of the meeting focused on the suspension and recent reinstatement of Rowan Students For Justice In Palestine (SJP). The club would later be reinstated by the university.

Senator for American Institute of Chemical Engineers (ACHIE) Youssef Badaoui asked about how the Rowan Administration will handle complaints coming from outside sources. 

“So, as we were mentioned, it was a group called Make NJ Red that has no correlation to the university. What I’m curious about is if there’s any checks or balances for the future when it comes to external organizations basically bullying our students that we can add to the dean’s process,” said Badaoui. 

To which Dean of Students Kevin Koett, Ph.D, explained that external organizations go beyond Facebook groups. 

“When you say external organizations, for us, that means a lot. That could be some of your parents, that could be some other organizations. So remember, there are lots of entities that make up external organizations,” said Koett. 

Badaoui pointed out that Make NJ Red, the right-winged Facebook group that sent in complaints about SJP, spam calling the Dean Of Students just to get a response, needs to be checked more. 

“This leads me to believe that this organization and likely many others are just going to spam call our Dean of Students in order to create some level of reaction, which I think there should be some level of checks and balances to kind of filter that out,” said Badaoui. 

Jimmy Flocco, a senator of Rowan Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), pointed out that even though the club has been reinstated, SJP isn’t safe from continuous threats and questions what protections are in place. 

“My question is how will Rowan and this student government take steps to protect the freedoms and security of our students,” said Flocco.

To which Koett reassured students that all complaints are taken seriously. 

“I will say that we reacted on both sides of this issue. There were multiple concerns here, and we addressed those to both sides. Certainly, we did make a decision once an appeal was made, and as you know, that was made today. So we’re always gonna take complaints and concerns very seriously, we have to,” said Koett.

The meeting also addressed election results and the new club budget.

Rowan University received a surprise additional revenue due to the unanticipated increase in freshmen enrollment. 

$49,750.00 went directly to club budgets, All SGA-chartered clubs received at least $100 for their role in increased enrollment. Clubs in good standing with 31+ members were given up to $350. Institutional clubs received up to $1000, with large institutional service clubs receiving $2500. 

Series one elections finished with a new president-elect Hope Campbell garnering 88% of the votes. Executive Vice President-Elect Theodore Young received 86% of the votes. 

Molly Fitzpatrick will continue her role as Chief Financial Officer, beating opponent Justin H. Green with 68% of the votes going to Fitzpatrick. 

The role of Alternate Student Trustee will be taken over by Jamar Hanks, who received 80% of the votes. 

Series two and three elections will take place from Feb. 25-27, with the winners being announced on March 3. 

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