By Michael Walsh
Last Wednesday the CCSU Student Government Association passed a motion to increase the scholarship committee’s funds to $29,500, an increase of $9,500 from the committee’s base budget.
The motion, raised by Senator Jamie Canny, the chair of the scholarship committee, was passed by SGA with the minimum amount of votes.
“As chair of the scholarship committee I made it a goal to expand the scholarships committee,” said Canny. “The committee strongly believes that scholarships are the most important impact we can make on the students.”
Canny said that the scholarship committee was originally given a budget of $20,000, the same figure as last year.
“After creating a potential list of scholarships for this academic year we realized in order to reach all of our goals we needed a larger budget,” said Canny.
The scholarship committee’s goal is to create brand new scholarships that every full-time student at CCSU would be able to apply for. And while creating the new scholarships would have been possible with a $20,000 budget, Canny felt that the small denomination of each individual scholarship wouldn’t be enough to make a large impact on a student’s life.
Some senators spoke out against the motion, acknowledging their desires to know the specifics of the scholarships before allocating the sum of money proposed by the scholarship committee.
The budget is still not set in stone. A motion can be made at Wednesday’s meeting to rescind the additional $29,500. If no motion is made, the budget then becomes official.
Also introduced at the meeting were the candidates in line for CCSU’s Chief Diversity Officer and the dates they would be available for students and others to interview them publicly.
“It would be awesome to have students show up,” said Senator Erika Dawson-Head, a member of the committee searching for the new officer.
The position of Chief Diversity Officer has been held in an interim role by Ernest Marquez ever since the dismissal of Moises Salinas, who was arrested last month on charges of sexual assault.
“We’re looking for longevity and somebody who will be the best fit for the university,” said Dawson-Head, stressing the importance of the position.
Dr. Laura Tordenti, Vice President of Student Affairs, added that the role of Chief Diversity Officer is a critical position on the CCSU campus.
The candidates and dates of availability are as follows: Jack Hasegawa, Oct. 7, John Armendariz, Oct. 12, Deborah Colucci, Oct. 14, John Fuller, Oct. 18, Myra Hindus, Oct. 20 and Deborah Freund, Oct. 28.
SGA also approved a motion to give their support to a new program at CCSU called “Community Central.” The program, which links CCSU with New Britain, is designed to involve CCSU students with students at New Britain High School. A NBHS-leased storefront property in New Britain is a main location for programs that will be created by CCSU faculty and students to help better involve both CCSU and NBHS students with the New Britain community.