DAN QUAGLIANA
Managing Editor
The logo of Fredonia’s Student Association
With most students only being at college for four years, perspectives on campus change quite frequently.
This is especially relevant when it comes to SUNY Fredonia’s Student Association (SA) — as the governing body of every club on campus, its constitution should be constantly updated, according to SA President Dakota Richter.
As part of this rationale, Richter recently spearheaded a few new additions to the constitution.
“I would say [that] at the moment, the one that’s probably pretty important is statute O-13,” he said. “It’s a statute concerning removal from elected positions in clubs. Throughout the fall semester, we dealt with an increase in club issues.”
Prior to the enactment of this statute, SA had no form of a blanket procedure for clubs to remove elected members from their own e-boards, for any reason. Clubs could have their own methods, but those that didn’t had no way of doing this.
“During Summit, we had a leadership training … workshop given by Campus Life to all of the clubs to help navigate [these] issues,” Richter added. “I think it went pretty well! I got a few emails and a few texts after, from clubs appreciating Summit this time around.”
Statute O-13 does specify that if clubs have their own removal process in their doctrines, they cannot conflict with SA’s statute.
Richter also took care to highlight the new Chair of Student Voices that he is trying to create. The SA constitution details two very similar positions: the Chair of Student Relations and the Chair of Community Relations.
According to Richter, those two chairs both served students, but the student relations chair was specifically targeted toward students on campus, while the community relations chair dealt with student matters off campus.
“Even if it’s out in the community, even if you’re downtown at a restaurant, even if you’re at Walmart,” students are still protected and represented by SUNY Fredonia. “I really see [that] combining those two positions kind of gives us leverage…to be able to perform better, instead of trying to focus on two different people,” Richter said.
He sees the new position as extremely important: “I see the Chair of Student Voices as being second to the president. So instead of our scale that we have of president, vice president, speaker, chief justice, comptroller, chief of staff, I would probably say it would now be president, [then] right next to me [is] student voices, and then vice president and down and down.”
While Richter doesn’t have someone in line to fill that position yet, that’s only because “…it’s brand new and I wanted to make sure that the [Chair of Diversity Relations] got filled, given the recent political changes,” he explained, referencing the nationwide elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs by President Donald Trump.
“I really want to make sure diversity and inclusion is a big thing on campus at the moment,” he said.
Statute E-16 is another statute that Richter is working to add. “[As I was] getting acclimated to the constitution… I noticed everything is really outdated. It’s been five years since even [the statutes concerning] the [committee] chairs have been looked at. So that’s concerning,” he said.
“Resolutions haven’t been touched in years, and the most recent resolution that I did read, the last one, the structure was incorrect,” he remembered. “The grammar was incorrect. How they went about passing the resolution was incorrect. I don’t believe that resolution even passed a general assembly. I believe somebody just put it in the constitution.”
Statute E-16 details how, two weeks before the end of the semester, the SA executives “have to meet together to talk about any amendments, proposal changes, resolutions that we want to pass at the final General Assembly of each semester,” Richter said. “Because throughout the semester, we’re always like, ‘Oh, we should change this. We should do this. We should add this.’ And then, you know, then we just forget about it, inevitably, because, as a student, we’re always busy.”
Voting representatives also passed one new resolution at the end of last semester. Resolution R-45 is titled “SUNY Fredonia Student Association Affirmation of Trans Rights and Support for Gender-Affirming Care,” and functions exactly as its title states.
Richter recalled how, immediately after the 2024 presidential election, students were extremely concerned and fearful on YikYak, through email and in person.
“Whatever happens outside of this campus,” he said, “SUNY Fredonia is a safe and inclusive and supportive environment.”