By Zack Comeau
Editorial Staff
SGA senators at Tuesday's meeting.
SGA narrowly voted Tuesday to deny the Framingham State Veterans’ Association’s request to fund a trip to the 2011 Student Veterans of America National Conference in Las Vegas.
The motion to deny the $3,305.52 request carried by a vote of 16-15-3.
President Flavio Mendes and Treasurer Elizabeth Marini represented the Veterans’ Association.
According to Mendes, half of the convention deals with veterans’ issues, benefits and their “transition into students.” The other half, he said, is a career fair.
“The point of it all,” he said, “is to bring some of these large-scale companies that are going to be there back to Framingham State” to present job opportunities to students, as well as veterans.
Companies such as Ratheon, Google and GE will be at the conference, according to Mendes.
According to Marini, the club also hopes to make “connections with other student leaders in other colleges and see how they handle transitioning veterans” and to learn what kind of events they hold to reach out to their communities.
Mendes said the school has “just over 100 or so” veterans.
Class and Club Treasurer Nicholas Avery asked what “connections” were brought back last year from a similar convention. Mendes, who did not attend the trip last year, said, to his knowledge, there was no “career aspect” of the convention.
Kate Oleson, social events coordinator, raised concerns about the club’s mission statement, which she said conflicts with the club’s interest in the job fair, as it does not directly mention jobs for veterans.
Marini admitted that the job fair does not directly relate to the mission statement, but, the “community aspect” of the conference does, referring to the portion of the FSUVA mission statement which includes that club members should be “active participants in the campus community.”
According to Mendes, Dawn Ross, Career Services internship coordinator, who is also a veteran, would be accompanying the club to the conference to help “put the school on the radar” of the companies that will be there.
Mendes, who has an extensive background in sales, having run a sales team, said he feels confident that he could recruit one of the Fortune 500 companies to consider hiring FSU vets and other students even if Ross were not accompanying them.
Student Trustee Kendra Sampson asked if there were any local conferences that would be less expensive to attend. According to Mendes, the convention is a national, once-a-year “one-stop shop,” and that there are no local conventions of this nature.
Marini said the companies “are looking for us as much as we are looking for them.”
At last year’s conference, which Mendes did not attend, the club learned about several changes regarding GI bills and benefits, information which he said was of use to everyone in the club, but not to the school. This year’s conference, he said, will benefit the school by introducing Framingham State to more Fortune 500 companies.
After a long discussion, SGA Vice President Molly Goguen and Senator Chris Peck moved to deny allocating the travel funds to the club.
SGA President Hannah Bruce, however, commended Mendes and Marini for explaining themselves “very well” and said that to prove the club is dedicated to benefit the school, they should hold on-campus events and to request the funds again next year.
In other news:
• Senator Paul Manning and SATF Treasurer Emily Cormack moved to table the Framingham State University Chess Club Constitution Request. The motion carried unanimously.
• On Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, ‘A Time to Inspire’ event will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the Forum.
