Raymond Baccari
News Editor
SCG’s first parliament meeting of the semester started off by deciding the special elections declared last semester. The first special election comes in the aftermath of Vice President Daisy Tran needing to resign since she is no longer attending RIC.
There were no declared candidates for Vice President, but Speaker Matthew Thureson ran a write-in candidacy, resigning his position in the process. Being the only candidate on the ballot, Thureson was elected SCG’s new Vice President.
“Thank you everybody for the opportunity to serve as Vice President for RIC Student Community Government. [I] really appreciate it. I think this past semester was our rebuilding semester. Now with Omicron [surging] this semester, [we’re] continuing that rebuilding phase. I know the E-Board and I are really excited for what events we have the potential to put on later this semester once everything has subsided. We appreciate your support. I really want to try to grow parliament if we can. I just want to get the word out. So I’m going to be talking to a lot of my residents, because I’m an RA. So I’m going to tell people what [SCG] is and hopefully people will join when they realize this organization funds all of the student organizations. [I] appreciate all of you guys voting for me, thank you,” Thureson said in his post-election remarks.
Alongside the special election for Vice President, the parliament members voted in a special election for Treasurer. This special election for the Treasurer position came in the wake of Asley Corrales not being eligible to serve in the position. Corrales not being enrolled in classes at RIC was the reasoning.
Parliament Representative Fathia Obabiyi was the Treasurer election’s only declared candidate. Secretary Christal Figuereo unexpectedly ran via a write-in candidacy. Obabiyi was voted in as SCG’s next Treasurer.
Following the elections, the parliament brought attention to an email received from Dr. Elijah Adiv Edelman, a Professor in the Anthropology Department. Edelman’s email raised concerns about a lack of ADA accommodations from SCG after asking the student organizations to submit their 2022-2023 budget packets in-person. The email further explained that RIC being remote adds an extra barrier for students to make the deadline for the paperwork and that the issue has occurred more than once.
President Shreena Patel summarized the email and then noted that SCG wants to make those changes so they are indeed ADA compliant. “We want to make those changes. But we need parliament’s help to decide whether or not we can do that,” said Patel.
SCG Administrative Supervisor and Lead Accountant Dianna Costa added, “If anybody has questions for myself as I am helping with the budget process, please don’t hesitate to ask me. I can explain what accommodations we have been making. But feel free to ask.”
The special elections for the newly open Speaker and Secretary positions are going to be decided in the next meeting on Feb. 9.