The Plattsburgh State Student Association held its first meeting of the semester Sept. 5 in the Cardinal Lounge of the Angell College Center.
SA president Jessica Falace spoke about the results of the “Project Waste Warriors” conducted in Clinton Dining Hall. Fallace assigned different members of the SA, along with a few greek-life students, to collect the wasted food of PSUC students as they left the dining hall.
“The objective is to see how much food is wasted in Clinton Dining Hall on a daily basis,” Fallace said. “We get people to table from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. all throughout the day. If someone doesn’t have a clean plate, we scrape that into a garbage can and weigh it by the hour. If students do eat all the food on their plate, we give them a prize. It’s really to just raise awareness.”
This semester, 394 lbs was the total food waste collected after one full day at Clinton Dining Hall.
After being informed of food waste, PSUC students argued that the portions given at the pasta station was too large to finish. After being told this, dining hall staff reconsidered portion sizes which led to them decreasing.
In other events, PSUC seniors Dylan Poje and Kim Stewart were approved as new co-chairs for Coffeehouse, a club on campus that plans every open-mic night on Wednesday at Burghy’s in the ACC.
“Coffeehouse is a club to allow people across this campus to express themselves in any means possible,” Stewart said. “Song, poetry, dance or whatever they feel comfortable with. We take art seriously as a means to express someone’s thoughts.”
Poje and Stewart have been members of Coffeehouse since their freshman year and are excited to voice their ideas for events.
“We feel very grateful,” Poje said. “I think Coffeehouse can be even better than it already is. Both of us [Poje and Stewart] have that drive to make it succeed.”
SA Chairperson Brandi Markowski closed the meeting with a statement for the SA and the students who were present.
“My goal this year is to create a welcoming atmosphere for all students and to help educate the students on the Student Association,” Markowski writes. “I want to encourage our students to come to us with their needs and to also be a part of the SA in any way including attending meetings. I also want to achieve a great end to this year’s legislation.”
The SA holds its meeting every Wednesday night at 9:15 p.m. in the Cardinal Lounge of the Angell College Center.
Email Mataeo Smith at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
