The Student Association Assembly voted Monday night to pressure Syracuse University to end a policy that prohibits students from registering and attending classes if they have financial holds.

The bill, co-authored by five assembly members, calls on SU to ease stress on students who are having financial trouble. Minority students, first-generation college students and students coming from lower income households are more likely to experience these financial holds, according to the bill.

“Students don’t necessarily control if they have financial holds or not because of financial aid packages,” SA speaker Will Pritchett said during the meeting.

The bill was discussed during last week’s SA meeting, and was passed within five minutes at Monday’s meeting. SA doesn’t have control over the SU policy relating to financial holds, so the bill only serves as a recommendation to university administrators.

“Not everyone’s financial situation is the same,” SA President Ghufran Salih said. “I think the university needs to start understanding that not everyone can pay their tuition at the same time or pay off their holds.”

The bill states that barring students from early semester classes “adds to the stress and disadvantages already being experienced by such students.” Students would be ineligible for course credit if they still had financial holds by the end of the semester, according to the bill.

The assembly also motioned to amend SA’s bylaws to use electronic clickers for voting instead of paper ballots.

This year, SA has suspended the portion of its bylaws that prohibits electronic communication throughout meetings on multiple occasions. This allows SA to use clickers instead of paper ballots, a method that both Salih and SA Vice President Kyle Rosenblum have called “wasteful.”

The bylaws were suspended at the beginning of Monday’s meeting, as well.

American Sign Language

Salih said she spoke to part-time American Sign Language instructor Amy Sakellariou about student interest in making ASL a more widespread course across the university. Currently, an ASL course can only count toward a minor in educational studies in the School of Education, Salih said. She added that the School of Education is the only college at SU that recognizes ASL as a language.

“It’s a language,” Salih said. “It has a culture and a history and a background.”

Other Business

• SA is working to improve textbook affordability. During the assembly meeting, Rosenblum said that he has reached out to schools to have inclusive textbook models.

• An apple picking trip will take place on Oct. 28 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and is open to all SU students. SA will sell 120 tickets at $10 each, and is booking three buses to leave from College Place.

• Ryan Golden, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and a columnist for The Daily Orange, was elected to chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. He said he will be stepping down from the SA assembly to make time for his new position.

Published on October 15, 2018 at 10:58 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326