A Letter From the Diplomacy Senator
By Jacob Abel
School of Diplomacy Senator
To my fellow Diplos,
Firstly, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Jacob Abel and I serve as the Senate Speaker and Diplomacy Senator in the Student Government Association (SGA). Along with Alyssa Futa, I represent the School of Diplomacy in the student senate.
Our goal is to hear your concerns, whether they are regarding the School of Diplomacy or the campus as a whole. We take our positions very seriously and are always looking for feedback on how we can improve or better represent you. I am listing our emails below in the event that any of you want to voice any concerns our simply learn more about SGA:
Alyssa and I hope to hold a few events over the course of our term where we can connect with our constituents in person. This will most likely be through the Diplomacy Town Halls, Additionally, at least one of us will be at every DULCE meeting.
We encourage every one of you to attend the DULCE meetings, as this is one of the most effective ways to share your concerns with us, as well as with Dean Andrea Bartoli. The monthly DULCE meetings are unique to the School of Diplomacy, as the other schools on campus do not usually offer the opportunity to have personal conversations with the Dean, especially meetings regarding any issues the students see fit.
Additionally, if there is ever any problems with technology or curriculum I would encourage you to reach out to the SGA. Regardless of whether your concern pertains to the Diplomacy school or not, we are here to help. Please contact our Academic Affairs committee for these needs. (Academic Affairs Committee Chair- emma.murphy@student.shu.edu)
If you do become involved in any of all our great Diplomacy Clubs, I would encourage you to utilize the resources that SGA offers especially our finance committee.
If you are trying to grow your club or organization, the Finance Committee can be a great way to get any supplementary funding. Whether it be for an event your club is trying to have, or a trip you are organizing, please feel free to speak with the Finance Committee for anything your club needs.
Finance Committee Chair- Ronald.babiak@student.shu.edu
Additionally, if there are ever any problems with technology or curriculum I would encourage you to reach out to our Academic Affairs committee.
Academic Affairs Committee Chair- emma.murphy@student.shu.edu
I also wanted to take this opportunity to mention some of the things the SGA is developing this year.
As a whole, the organization is working on promoting diversity around campus and on creating more transparency at every levels of the university. Last year the student senate passed a piece of legislation that required all senators to attend at least two club meetings a month of clubs that they normally would not attend.
As an organization we hope that this will give our senators a new perspective and a view of the concerns of other students that they would not normally have.
Additionally, our President Rishi Shah is currently in the process of developing a Presidential Cabinet. The goal of the cabinet is to give students, from all walks of life around campus, direct access to the highest-ranking officials in SGA, and to the faculty and the school administration.
We hope that the Presidential Cabinet will help bring more awareness to issues regarding diversity and transparency. More importantly though, we envision the Cabinet as being a policy making tool where the feedback received we get from students who are selected to sit on Cabinet can be used to shape policy decisions of student government, as well as the school administration.
Walking around campus, I hear students around talking about the various changes they want to see at Seton Hall. This is encouraging; however, the key to making any changes is the level of student involvement and the ability for communication between the students and the administration.
I got involved in SGA because my passion is to represent and for the interest of people around me. Being able to represent so many talented and driven people has been a great experience and has helped me grow tremendously. We will be in touch throughout the year to inform you of events and initiatives SGA will be holding and working on.
Sincerely Yours,
Jacob Abel
Class of 2020
