by Miranda Marte Velez
Chief Sam Ramos
Student Senate’s weekly meeting started with a presentation from the new Assistant Chief of Police, Sam Ramos.
He started by detailing his personal life, before launching into his role on campus.
“I work under the direction of Chief Dayton Tucker,” Ramos said. “My job is to promote his intentions and his visions.”
Ramos is responsible for day to day operations of the department, including investigations, communications and community relations.
“I’m not here to reinvent the wheel. I don’t have delusions of grandeur. I’m not here to have things change, unless there needed to be changed,” said Ramos. “I’m here to make the system work.”
He spoke about different programs that the department is offering that are open to the community, including the Rape Aggression Defense program, an active shooter drill workshop, the Citizens Police Academy internship, Coffee with a Cop, and DUI awareness programs.
In addition to these programs, Ramos also talked about Operation Safe Travels.
On Nov. 20, a local auto service will come to campus to offer its services to students free of charge. They will check students’ cars’ safety of tires, and top of fluids, like oil, transmission and wiper fluid.
The active shooter drill workshop will also happen on Nov. 20, and Dec. 4 will be the actual active shooter drill at the gym. Specific times and locations will be provided at a later time through the information network.
He didn’t allow questions at the meeting, but encouraged the senators and students to email him with questions at samuelramos@purchase.edu.
NYPIRG Gets Ready for Higher Education Action Day
NYPIRG Project Coordinator, James Accordino, spoke to call for attention to higher education advocacy.
“Every spring, we partner with SUNY SA and CUNY USS and a number of the faculty and staff unions to put together what’s called Higher Education Action Day,” Accordino said.
"Basically, this is a big lobbying trip up to Albany where we're bringing hundreds of students from all across SUNY and CUNY to directly lobby our state level elected officials on the state budget as it relates to higher education."
The trip which was snowed out last year, usually takes place in mid-spring. Students are encouraged to share their personal stories both negative and positive with state officials.
“If any of you and anyone here, who is now a student would be interested in talking a bit about their experiences with me; something that’s gone right, something that’s gone wrong, something that we fixed, please talk to me about it. I’d love to interview you," said Accordino. “The stories we’re collecting, we’re putting directly into testimony and putting it on the public record and making sure that politicians know."
The official date of Higher Education Action Day has not been revealed yet.
Student Senate meet every week on Wednesdays from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.