Senate revisits indictment of former Grand Marshal

Last week's tabled motion was to declare the “Rensselaer Union Elections Act” with regards to issues from the 2024 election season. This motion, however, was withdrawn by Graduate Senator and Student Life Committee Chair Ria Massoni to rework the motion towards the beginning of the meeting. This move was rather abrupt, allowing the Board to move past into other business. However, the topic was then later brought up again at the end of the meeting. In the post-formal business section of the meeting, Massoni restarted the conversation on the unjustness in the previous election. With Judicial Board Chairperson Caidon Lewis ’26 in attendance, Massoni asked for information about the case from last spring. The main points that she wanted to discuss concerned the process in which the indictment was handled. When a case is presented to the Judicial Board, anything against the student handbook is treated as a criminal case, whereas a constitutional issue should be treated as a constitutional case. In the Spring, there was a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding from the Senate and Judicial Boards, so the case on the former Grand Marshal was taken mostly as a criminal case, rather than a constitutional one. Massoni continued to ask for information from Lewis, as well as former Elections Chair Timothy Miles ’G and Elections Committee member Alex Patterson, but both stated that they handled the situation well with the information they had. Members of the Senate were concerned that the discussion was leading into unprofessional territory, but Massoni assured the assembly that her intentions were to gather information to prevent unfairness in future elections. Although no action was done during the meeting, Massoni withdrew the motion earlier presumably with the intention for the Senate to revisit the discussion at a later date.

During formal business, three confirmations came to the board. Jacob Lorelli ’25 first approached the Senate for the position of Elections Commission Chair. Lorelli had previously helped run elections under former Chair Nick Longchamp ’24. Since Lorelli’s freshman year, he hadn’t been active in student government, but wanted to return for his final year at Rensselaer. The confirmation for the position passed unanimously.

Two individuals then approached the board for Executive Board positions. Quinn Heskett ’28 expressed his interest in finance and was unanimously appointed Member-At-Large Representative. James Baker ’28 also expressed his interest in finance and student government, having experience in high school. The motion to confirm Baker for Club and Organization Representative passed 9-1-3.

This meeting was held on September 23, 2024. The Senate meets every Monday at 8 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.