On Wednesday, Florida Atlantic University’s Student Government (SG) hosted the Governor’s Address featuring newly appointed Boca Raton Campus Governor Raymond Adderly. During the event, Adderly revealed the SG Cabinet’s accomplishments and outlined his upcoming plans for the campus.

As a freshman, Adderly strived to serve his community and address rising issues on campus as he shared his story with the crowd. Now a sophomore, he expressed that he is going to continue doing that with a renewed commitment. 

“It’s with the same level of gratitude, eagerness and servitude that I submit to you this Governor’s Address,” Adderly said.

Parking

Adderly allowed an open forum to allow the audience to ask questions. This is where Laura Arbo, SG’s Program Board director, brought up the parking concern on campus. 

“Unfortunately, again, it’s a matter of facilities and SG not having a budget to directly deal with it,” said Adderly, noting that if students continue to advocate for more parking spots and fewer tickets, it can make a change. 

Housing costs

Adderly also said SG has reached out to Changing Lives, a company directly working with James Batmasian, the CEO of Investments Limited, to strategize ways to reduce homelessness in the community. 

He emphasized that the shortage of on-campus housing has become a growing concern for FAU students. 

Adderly added SG is working to connect with these companies to develop subsidized housing options for students. Once an agreement is finalized, he said the goals are to ensure that students have lower rent, and won’t have to pay the first and last month’s rent or a security deposit upon moving into their apartments.

“I think that is groundbreaking in itself,” Adderly said. 

Alcoholism 

Kaelyn Haines, a freshman in political science, raised her concern about alcoholism, particularly among first-year students. 

Adderly was unaware of this issue and plans to discuss it further with the SG Cabinet. 

In the meantime, he encourages students to “take advantage of all the resources that we have on campus,” including Counseling and Psychological Services and Victim Support Services.

Sexual assault awareness 

This semester, FAU will host an event called, “It’s On Us” to raise awareness about sexual assault. 

“We want to stand firm with those victims and make sure that we are creating preventative measures as a campus to ensure that’s not happening,” Adderly said. 

He also mentioned that SG will be working with FAU’s Jupiter Campus Governor, Grace Patterson, to help make the event successful.  

Food insecurity

This past spring, SG multicultural programming partnered with Feeding South Florida for an event called, “Food for Thought: Mindful Munch,” providing free fresh produce to students. 

According to Adderly, SG is working to bring this event back for the current school year “so that our students are not having to worry about where they are going to get a meal from.”

Campus recreation 

Adderly has been collaborating with Warren Shaw, a director at the Department of Campus Recreation. 

Adderly said the SG gives the Campus Rec their full support with adjustments, specifically, “to upkeeping their spaces, putting up new artwork within the campus rec and generally letting all students know all the programs and services that the Campus Rec have outside of the gym.”

Club athletics  

Adderly has been made aware by the Sport Club Council that club athletics—including ice hockey, intramural basketball, gymnastics and ice skating—are facing challenges related to member affordability. 

He shared that he and SG’s CFO, Benjamin Cohen are actively working to reduce student membership costs from between $60 and $80 per month to a more reasonable cost. 

Fine arts

As sports events are free to students,  SG will also aim to make fine arts events hosted by the Department of Theater and Dance and the Department of Music free. 

“I am very proud to announce that my office was the first student government office ever to launch such a program,” Adderly said. 

The Department of Theatre and Dance presents the musical, “Firebringer” from Sept. 27 to Oct. 6. Adderly announced that up to 60 students can redeem a free ticket for this event using their FAU account and the promo code ‘fire.’ 

Adderly said his long-term goal is to ensure that these fine arts departments “have permanent allocations within our SG budgets to cover all of those shows for all of our students at no limit.”

Student entrepreneurs 

SG will host a small business fair in the housing lot this spring, providing a platform for student entrepreneurs to showcase their ventures. Additionally, four students will be selected for training on becoming registered vendors on campus.

“It’s incumbent when we talk about academic enrichment that we make sure that our very students are getting that sort of on-campus experience in terms of entrepreneurship,” Adderly said. 

Sephora Charles is a Staff Writer for the University Press. For more information on this article or others, you can reach her at [email protected].