During Wednesday’s senate meeting, an announcement regarding the governor of Florida was made, a financial aid bill was proposed, and five people were confirmed to the executive branch.
Sen. Torey Alston, 21, took the floor during community forum, a time where guests and or members of the Student Government Association can speak to the senate about issues.
At that time, Alston, a former intern for Gov. Jeb Bush, said Bush wants to have an open discusssion with a group of FAMU students.
“The governor has requested to meet with a group of FAMU students,” Alston said. “I think this is a pro-active move by the governor.”
Alston, a senior business administration student from Fort Lauderdale, said this news is great considering that in the past FAMU students were demanding time to speak with the governor.
Alston said when the governor meets with FAMU students he not only wants to talk about the decline of students enrolled at FAMU, but also the fall in the numbers of minority students in Florida.
“It’s already official,” Alston said about the fact that the news has not been officially announced from the governor’s office. Alston said the announcement will more than likely go through the president’s office and a group of students will be picked to meet with Bush.
Alston is looking forward to this meeting. He feels that if the governor agreed to meet with FAMU students, then the students should be interested in voicing their concerns.
“I think this is a positive move by the governor to request this meeting,” Alston said. “We as FAMU students should have a lively debate about the future of FAMU.”
Before Alston got up to speak at the community forum, Sen. Candice Elliott, 20, spoke about a bill proposal, which would help ease the students waiting in the financial aid line.
In her three-page proposal, Elliott, a political science and English junior from Orlando, laid out plans to place computers, TVs and a wait time monitor in the financial aid office.
Elliott wants to put TVs in the financial aid office to keep students informed about national, financial aid and university news.
As for the computers, Elliott noticed how the computers that were in the office last year are no longer there. She wants to put computers back in the financial aid office so students can check their financial status on those instead of waiting in line
Elliott’s personal experience with the financial aid office, more specifically the line, was the reason she proposed to have an electric wait timer in the office. When she visited the financial aid office, Elliott not only waited in line for more than two hours, a woman behind her who had also been in line for two hours had to leave so she would not be late for class. “I was the 11th person in line with a class in an hour and a half,” Elliott said. “In an hour and a half, I was the sixth.”
As it was only a proposal, Elliott’s bill was not voted on last night.
After the community forum time, five more students were confirmed to the executive branch, adding to the seven who were confirmed during last week’s meeting. One of the five students confirmed was Amanda Trice, 20, as deputy secretary of economic development.
Although she was just confirmed Wednesday, Trice has already worked with the economic development department to come up with “Are You in the 850,” an upcoming credit seminar.
Trice, a public management and human resources junior from Milwaukee, Wis., said she defiantly wanted to have a credit seminar mostly because students get loans and are unaware of guidelines around them.
“Some people get student loans and don’t realize that you have to pay them back immediately,” Trice said.
Other people confirmed were Kumasi Aaron as secretary of state, Harry Hawkins as deputy secretary of state, Dominique Drake as secretary of athletic affairs and Aaron Brown as deputy secretary of student welfare.
Contact Brandon Oliver at famuannews@hotmail.com