Budget, Communication and Accountability Discussions Fill April Fools' Senate Meeting
- Apr 13
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 14
By Lucienne Burns | April 13, 2026
The Student Association (SA) Senate held their typical weekly meeting on April Fools' Day, but the meeting was no joke — including guest speakers, dining updates and budget talk despite nothing on the legislative agenda.
Senators and officials packed several discussions into the meeting, lasting around four hours, ranging from proper communication as student leaders to new dining changes to budget allocations.
Presentation about Student Leader Communication
The senate meeting was visited by Lizzy Doyle, Associate Director for Programming, Student Organizations and Fraternity and Sorority Life at UAlbany’s Office of Student Engagement and Belonging. Doyle talked about the importance of communication as student leaders and discussed introducing formal training for senators in the future.
“This is really about us taking a step back as a group and thinking about how you all can work together. At the end of the day, I’m speaking to every elected official in the room,” Doyle said. “You guys are our Student Association Senate. You all are our Student Association leadership team, and at the end of the day here, we are elected to represent.”
Doyle said that the senate’s main goal is to help students, and that the senate has to work together to ensure students’ goals can be met. By navigating the “gray area” of how communication works in professional settings, her goal visiting the senate was to discuss how to move forward through the remaining weeks of the semester.
Doyle also reminded senators that the bylaws provide structure when disagreements arise, or ethics investigations or even utilizing university resources. She emphasized that there is still time left to help students, and that this outcome would be difficult to achieve without collaboration and productive conversation.
Dining Changes Coming in Fall of 2026
Members of the Great Dane Hospitality team, including Field Marketing Manager Megan Chrostowski, also paid a visit to the senate meeting to discuss the changes coming to the Campus Center in the fall. This follows the addition of Aramark as the campus food service provider on campus in January.
According to Chrostowski, multiple locations are being moved around and a new, all you can eat dining location will be coming to the East Wing of the Campus Center.
Students should expect these changes when they return in the fall:
Campus Center East (locations such as Yella’s, Halal Shack, East Cafe, etc.) will be changed into District East, a swipe-access eating venue that is more similar to a dining hall with rotating food concepts.
Halal Shack and Jamal’s Kitchen will be moving to a more central location in the Campus Center, in the general area near where Umai Fusion is currently located.
Discount Dollars will be changed into Damien Bucks, and meal plans will look similarly structured but with updated titles and some different options. More information can be found here.
Instead of the GET Mobile app, students will use Grubhub to place mobile orders at retail locations in the Campus Center for convenience.
In the Massry building, Morris Cafe will be replaced by Saxby’s, an experiential learning cafe that will be run by students.
Chrostowski explained that the new prices at retail locations will reflect a lower price because the discount system will not be used anymore.
“The discount dollars are completely going away, and all pricing and menus will be revisited to reflect that,” Chrostowski said.
Dining locations Umai fusion, Calypso and Republic of Spice will be closed for construction for these changes beginning April 17, 2026, according to the University Auxiliary Services (UAS) Instagram account.
Upcoming Budget Process Discussion
Last week, on April 8, the senate held their last regular meeting before budget season. While the ASP was not able to attend this meeting, with the upcoming budget process it was an important point even at the meeting on April 1.
The budget meetings begin on Wednesday, April 15 starting with the external budget, and Wednesday, April 29 for the internal budget. The internal budget will be presented by president-elect for next academic year, Ava-Rae Calloway.
Senators expressed concerns about the budget and how it would impact funding to student organizations.
Grace Augenstern, Chair of the Constituent Relations committee, expressed disappointment with the budget as part of the committee communicating with student organizations about budget appeals.
Another member of the Constituent Relations committee said that 43 clubs received budget reductions in the proposed budget, mentioning the difficulty of having to communicate to clubs the committee could not grant their funding requests.
“These are not small cuts, and these are only just a few examples, but these reductions directly impact the quality of programming opportunities and experiences that these organizations provide to students,” said Senator Alana Borrero.
Comptroller Gabrielle Holness said that despite personal disagreement, there are two sides to everything and the Student Association could not simply “give up money."
“I do think that the budget is a little bit off, but that’s my personal opinion,” said Comptroller Holness. “We don’t know what the next president wants from the inside, and that’s why we put external low, because we cover so much for student groups.”
Senator Evan Reilly, Chair of the Board of Finance, said that the budget reflects efforts to stop relying on SA’s surplus account to protect the organization financially.
“We received lots of funds into our surplus, and we were able to spend a large amount of money on clubs, organizations, and events. However, these additional funds are finite and will continue to decrease the way we have been spending,” Senator Reilly said. “So if theoretically, we have another extreme circumstance of the Dippikill settlement, we want SA to continue operating and supplying resources to student groups and organizations at the start of the budget process.”
Senator Reilly’s final recommendation for the external budget was $1,051,572, which is approximately a 4% decrease from the 2025-2026 external budget amount.
Failure of Emergency Legislation
The meeting took a turn when the previously empty legislative agenda saw a motion to suspend the rules and remove the chair, along with the possibility of an emergency piece of legislation called “A Call for Accountability.”
Sponsored by Senator Marcos Perez, the resolution called for the “resignation and/or removal of the SA Senate Chair, SA Senate Vice Chair, and SA President,” and subsequent investigations of leadership from the Rules, Oversight and Government Operations and Ethics committees.
Senator Perez discussed a personal experience of being threatened by a member of the senate, and said there had been a lack of action from leadership in regards to this event.
“Unfortunately the matters of conversation that we should be having aren’t just lack of communication,” said Senator Perez, going on to say that accountability is the problem the senate needs to focus on instead.
Chair Troy Serao and Senator Perez debated on the legitimacy of motions under the Roberts' Rules of Order system. Some senators expressed confusion during debates and motions asked to clarify what they were voting on, while some disagreed with the nature of the motion.
“Any motion that requires the start of ‘I would like to suspend the rules to do…’ I believe should not be a motion in any in any organization,” said Senator Jackson Woolley. “What appears to be happening is people would like to circumvent the rules, to go around the established systems that we have within the Student Association in order to remove a person from their position. That is actively wrong.”
The senate was divided and the addition of the resolution to the agenda received 16 yes votes and 13 no votes, and was therefore not added.
In his closing remarks, Chair Serao explained how he handled a previous situation and apologized for losing the senate’s trust.
“In a situation that was referred to earlier, I made sure that the university administration was aware, and then followed up with that process and informed members that they could you know go and do their own report to an investigatory committee similar to a report I could do…that said, that's neither here nor there,” Chair Serao said. “Again, I’m sorry that I lost so many of your trust in my ability to do this job. Over the next week, I’ll certainly be reflecting on what I can do better to better serve you all, not just half or two -thirds.”
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