The Plattsburgh State Student Association held their first senate meeting Wednesday night to discuss various topics. Among those topics were the funding for a club sanctioned event, a trip to Adirondack Extreme Adventure Course next Saturday hosted by the Trips Committee, as well as the scheduling of future meetings. Perhaps the most pressing issues discussed at the meeting was that of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, as well as the dismantlement of the DACA program.
For Hurricane Harvey, Plattsburgh State is planning a fundraiser through Project H.E.L.P to support recovery efforts in Texas. PSUC Vice President Bryan Hartman acknowledges the tragedy in Texas but has spoken with Project H.E.LP about broadening fundraising efforts to include support for victims of Hurricane Irma. This is because of the large amount of students who have family in the Caribbean, as well as Florida Hartman said. As he puts it “This is going to get personal for a bunch of our students.”
On DACA, Hartman sees it as a precarious situation. For one, the exact amount of Dreamers on campus is unknown to PSUC. That information is neither provided by students or asked by PSUC, but they do estimate to have a handful of undocumented immigrants here on campus. Whether they are Dreamers are unknown. Though Hartman wants to extend his support and stress that peers and staff express care and concern to any student feeling anxious about the recent decision, he said he doesn’t want it to draw attention to PSUC students and risk having students deported by ICE.
Instead, he’d rather have students “fly under the radar” and continue to progress toward achieving a degree. “I want them to be successful. That’s the goal. They’re here to get a degree, to better themselves.”
Email Fernando Alba at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
