Student Association President Joe Frascello announced the Student Association’s new motto, “Engaging Student Solutions,” as well as the SA’s initiatives for the spring semester and beyond at SA Senate Sunday.

Experience, safety and health and sustainability are the most important things to the SA executive branch, Frascello said.

Experience

Not many experiences can be had if students cannot get to a college campus in the first place, so students must be aware of the costs associated with college, Frascello said. He said it’s the SA’s job to educate others on money, specifically in regard to the state budget.

“We have a new governor who doesn’t necessarily agree with the other elected officials in Springfield,” Frascello said. “It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully, the budget isn’t cut too much or at all.”

Huskie Link, essentially a “Facebook for student organizations,” Frascello said, will eliminate the paperwork involved with setting up student organizations and allow organizations to gain members. All student organizations are required to sign up on the website at niu.collegiatelink.net before March 20 or they may be temporarily suspended.

Safety and health

It’s On Us, a sexual assault prevention campaign launched in the fall, is an initiative Frascello said he hopes will continue to improve the safety of students. Last fall, the SA hosted a Week of Action dedicated to preventing sexual assault to promote It’s On Us with self defense and bystander education and prevention events.

“We want to make sure that those who violate these laws are prosecuted and … we’re offering programs from preventing that from happening,” Frascello said.

A speaker from Safe Passage, a DeKalb center focused on reducing and preventing domestic violence and sexual assault, said the center is interested in engaging students on campus, especially those students in Greek life and the residence halls.

Sustainability

SA Senate Speaker Dillon Domke said he will speak to Jill Zambito, director of Student Involvement and Leadership Development, on the possibility of holding online elections for SA senators to increase student participation.

Frascello said he wanted to make sure the initiatives the SA enforce now will be sustainable and the future of SA will not have to begin with a clean slate.

“We’re advocating for what we’re doing today [to not] be forgotten tomorrow,” Frascello said.