New committee to focus on SGA campus safety concerns

By Izabela Gage Editorial Staff Student Government Association (SGA) held a club representative meeting followed by a Senate meeting Oct. 7. SGA President César Matos opened the club representative meeting with an interactive survey. He said the information collected from club representatives and senators would help SGA better represent student perspectives at its upcoming Administrator’s Forum being held on Nov. 18. “We are collecting data from you all, and this is going to be an initiative that SGA is going to be hosting for the next few weeks,” he added. “This isn’t a time to necessarily bash certain parts of the University. We are just trying to get as much honest feedback about some of the services that the University has to offer,” Matos said. After the survey, Matos introduced Tristan Fahey, catering manager for Sodexo, who attended the meeting in response to club representatives’ request to meet with a Sodexo representative. Fahey said the catering team is always open to suggestions for event menus per the request of the clubs. “I know with organizational parties, budgets are always a concern, but we can work with you on that. Just because it’s not on the menu doesn’t mean we can’t do it,” she added. “I’m happy to sit with any of you to go over menus, ideas, whatever it may be. That’s my job - I want to make it easy for you, I want to make it fun for you, and I want to collaborate with all of you,” Fahey said. She said Sodexo now has an organized list of food trucks available for clubs to use for their events. “If you have a budget for what you’re looking to spend, I can reach out to the food truck companies. Say you pick four trucks - let me know which ones would best fit within your budget, and we can go from there.” Student Trustee Luke Yubeta said regarding catering for events, the Center for Student Experience (EXP) can’t use any catering services from a third-party vendor. “Any type of catering has to go through Sodexo.” SGA Vice President Shubham Valand called the senate meeting to order. Matos proposed the formation of the safety and security ad hoc committee after concerns were raised about campus safety during the recent SGA retreat Oct. 4. He said, “We want to make sure that we address these concerns in a way that incorporates all the feedback that we received today from folks of each club.” Matos explained that ad hoc committees are temporary groups created to address specific issues. “They don’t exist throughout the entire year. They simply exist in order to either resolve the solution to the problem that they’re looking at, or they exist for a certain amount of time, and then they get dissolved once that time comes through.” He proposed an end date for the committee shortly after the Administrator’s Forum. A motion to implement the safety and security ad hoc committee with the assumed end date of Nov. 21, 2025, was made by Matos and seconded by Senator Nathan Piette. The committee’s work will include both the physical and procedural aspects of campus safety. Piette said the purpose of the safety and security ad hoc committee is to survey the property that is Framingham State and determine any faulty areas or lack of safety in a certain area. He added they will also “have a group walk to determine any points we’re missing - anything you haven’t thought of, or any ideas for the future.” Matos said, “I would also include overseeing things that are outside of the properties of the campus - sort of the systematic things of this campus. … In terms of looking at what the procedure is for sexual assault cases on campus, having a better understanding as to what that encompasses, and what ways we are better able to address those concerns.” Events Coordinator Alix Ayoub said, “I argue that we do not currently have a chair for this committee, and there is no organizational leadership. Is there a way that this can be expanded, or is there another way for it to run?” Matos said, “When we create the committee, we would have to give the committee a chair. The chair essentially sets what the structure of that meeting is going to look like and what that committee is going to oversee.” The Senate moved to appoint leadership. Piette and Senator Jobe Murphy both presented their cases for the chair position. Piette said, “I have served most of the last 10 years in a safety setting, both in orchestrating crisis mitigation tactics with the group and the documentation they're after, and the meetings regarding the documentation for that. … Without getting more personal, it means a lot to me. I think I have very good experience.” Murphy said, “I have gone through the ideas of leadership, understanding other people’s opinions on ideas, and listening to others. … I’ll probably revoke as chair if I could be put onto the vice chair to work with them, because I think he is probably more experienced than me.” The Senate voted with 15 in favor and one opposed to approve the motion to create the safety and security ad hoc committee with Piette as chair and Murphy as vice chair.