Raymond Baccari
Editor-in-Chief
Student Community Government’s (SCG) most recent parliament meeting on Wednesday created several questions in a few areas.
SCG President Matthew Thureson announced he is stepping down from his role at the end of this semester. The reason why is that Thureson is graduating after next month.
“It’s going to be really sad to go,” Thureson said in a post-meeting interview. “It’s been a complete honor working with all of these people, and I’m just so proud of the growth that we’ve had over the past year. Last year at this time, there were only two people sitting at the head of the table, and we’ve come so far from that.”
Thureson resigning from his post now means there is a special election coming up for the seat. The election for a new president is set for Wednesday, Nov. 16. Currently, there are a few potential parliament members who could throw their hats into the race. One potential candidate may be SCG’s current Speaker, James Torres, who initially ran last year, but stepped aside to let Thureson become president before graduating.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Torres said when asked if he plans to run for the open position. “I was running for that position, if you remember, in the spring. And I gracefully resigned because I wanted him to take it because he was graduating, which would look great on his resume. But I’m thinking about it. If my colleagues would have me, I wouldn’t mind.”
The soon-to-be election for president of SCG is just one of two that made news during this meeting. SCG’s Vice President, Asley Corrales, announced the results of October’s class officer elections.
In the freshman class of 2026’s election results, Orli Juarez was elected to be the class president, and Chloe Cabral was elected to be the class vice president. Both the secretary and treasurer positions remain open for a runoff election due to there being only write-in candidates.
The declaration period for positions that are going to a runoff is open until Monday, Nov. 21. There won’t be any write-in options for the runoffs. Voting will go from Tuesday, Nov. 22 until Friday, Nov. 25.
For the sophomore class of 2025, Deolinda Mendes won the election to be her graduating class’s president. The class of 2025’s vice president, secretary and treasurer positions are also heading to a runoff election.
The junior class of 2024 is the only graduating class with a full slate of elected class officers. The only open position, which was vice president, saw Gianna Delmonico win that election. Those class officers can now start both planning events and raising money.
In the senior class of 2023, the vice president, secretary and treasurer positions head to a runoff. The class’s current president is Shannon McDonald.
Thureson wasn’t the only departure for SCG. This meeting was during Administrative Supervisor, Dianna Costa’s last week at SCG. Her final day was Friday.
Costa played a vital role in SCG. Every week, she was in the office, and available to answer any questions student organizations had, ranging from finances to payroll to important items on every club’s to-do list each school year.
Costa’s departure now adds extra pressure onto the remaining staff and students in SCG, especially when Thureson’s exit is factored in. It’s unclear at this time when the college will have a replacement for that position. In August, Costa gave her notice to Rhode Island College that she was leaving in November.
What will happen following those two departures is just one unanswered question. The status of SCG’s funding being unfrozen appeared to be in a gray area.
Thureson explained during an interview after a prior parliament meeting that RIC President, Dr. Jack Warner, wants to have an operating agreement signed before unfreezing the remaining funding. This operating agreement would have a clear and established relationship between the college and SCG, with one of the terms likely being “oversight over the employees of SCG.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, RIC’s Associate Dean of Students, Pegah Rahmanian, answered parliament members’ questions regarding where both parties are in this process. One bit of confusion that came from the question and answers portion was whether or not SCG got any proper deadline from the college.
The Anchor reached out to Warner to get the college’s side on the bulk of information that came from Wednesday’s meeting. At the time of publication, Warner couldn’t be reached for comment.