SGA logo. (Photo via ProfLink)
Rowan University’s Student Government Association (SGA) held its second Senate meeting of the semester on Monday, Sept. 29.
The Senate started with an overnight travel request presentation from the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), which presented a request for funding towards a trip to a conference in Washington, DC.
Youssef Badaoui, Senator for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, questioned what the club has done for students.
“For people who aren’t related to the PR field, are there any volunteer projects that you’re doing? Any fundraisers, anything you can tell us that you have done to materially benefit the people of Rowan as a collective,” said Badaoui.
Riley Adams, the PRSSA’s Vice President of Professional Development, was the one to respond.
“We have our cystic fibrosis walkway event that’s actually in honor of a Rowan student who passed away a few years ago from cystic fibrosis. That is a volunteering event where all proceeds go to charity. We don’t benefit from that at all,” said Adams.
In the end, the PRSSA received $8,000 in funding and will be going to Washington, DC.
A special election was held to fill the vacancy on the Assistant Vice President (AVP) of Public Relations and Special Events Executive Board chair that Hope Campbell vacated when she became president.
Since it was a special election, senators who asked a question during the first round of questioning would have to repeat it for every candidate, which confused some members of the Senate.
Junior class senator, Dylan Volinski, spoke up about the questioning.
“Anthony does not determine what every single other person’s questions could be. Maybe we could have one or two, because Julia might not have the same answer,” said Volinski.
Volinski’s point was clarified, and the election continued.
10 candidates ran for the election, including sophomore Zyon Ramsey, sophomore Anthony Scalzo, and senior Cade Padilla.
Scalzo, in discussing his goals if elected to the role, emphasized the importance of inclusion and engagement within the SGA.
“As AVP of PR and Special Events, I want to make not only you guys, but everybody here in the SGA, be able to feel more involved, and everybody else on campus to feel as involved as they can be, and really bring that to everybody,” said Scalzo.
Padilla believed the best way to bring social media engagement for SGA is through consistency in posting.
“The big thing with Instagram is consistency. That doesn’t mean posting every day. That means posting on the same days at the same time. So what I would do is I would get our posting up,” said Padilla.
Ramsey believed her drive and her urgency set her apart from her other candidates.
“With my background in leadership, planning, and even my experience from Key Club and just high school, where we organized food drives and other service projects. I know how to take initiative and follow through. I run structure, from ROTC urgency, from EMS, and heart, and everything that I do,” said Ramsey.
In the end, Ramsey was selected for the position by the Senate with 52 votes to her name.
During the student concerns portion, Volinski pointed out that the traffic circle on Rowan Boulevard was not technically Rowan’s jurisdiction after an incident involving an Orbeez gun.
“I was walking from the Whitney Center to the courtyard, and we had a juvenile problem on campus. And from about 20 feet away, I was, with an Orbeez gun, shot in the back by the kid. I called RUPD, not their jurisdiction. It is the Glassboro police’s jurisdiction. I was not told that. That means, I believe Whitney is not within the jurisdiction,” said Volinski.
The next Senate meeting will take place on Oct. 20, 2025.
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