On Wednesday, February 4th, Gallaudet’s Student Body Government (SBG) held the 7th session of the Student Congress. The session began with the swearing in of three new senators before Student Body President, Trent Mora, gave his State of the SBG address.
Mora gave a summary of SBG’s work in the Fall 2025 semester. This included celebratory comments about the success of this year’s Homecoming committee. Mora seemed particularly proud that some students have joined and continued to work with SBG following their involvement in the Homecoming committee. He then commented on SBG’s goals for the current semester, which include establishing a student advocacy platform, a proposal to purchase a new sound system for student organization use, and moving the SBG office to the second floor of the Student Academic Center.
Following the State of the Union address, the Student Congress moved to consider nominations for several SBG positions. Each candidate had the opportunity to make a brief speech and answer questions from the senators assembled before voting commenced.
The students successfully voted in were as follows: Evan Stromberg as Director of Finance, Ash Bartok as Director of Projects, Nathan Sheppeck as Sergeant at Arms, and Justin Muschette as Vice Speaker of the House.
After the aforementioned students took their oath of office, the Student Congress heard updates from the Executive Branch of SBG. The most striking comment from SBG’s Vice President, Dalina Schwartz, had to do with on-campus renovations. Schwartz shared that the renovations on Carlin Hall are expected to be completed by May 2026, and that once Carlin Hall is open, Benson Hall will be closed for renovations. How this will impact student experience and residence life in the 2026-27 school year remains to be seen.
Several SBG officers then shared updates from their respective departments. There was discussion on accessibility concerns regarding the Merrill Learning Center/Research and Innovation Hub project, as well as online platforms, such as Blackboard and Workday. The Student Congress was informed that SBG will invite Facilities Specialist Justin Lasko to their next meeting to address concerns over mold and pests in on-campus housing. The Director of Communications, Christian Jimenez, announced the launch of SBG’s website (gu.live/sbg), then Director of Events, Ethan Jacobs, discussed planning for two upcoming events: ColorFest and RockFest.
Throughout the meeting, concerns about ICE activity cropped up multiple times. A community conversation on the topic is in the works, in collaboration with Multicultural Student Programs. In addition, Nuestra Casa is working to inform students of their rights.
Several motions were passed by the Student Congress, including one to establish an accessibility committee led by Guinevere Head-Allen. Head-Allen is the current Director of Accessibility for SBG. The last motion introduced was by Donovan Holmes in order to open a discussion on the work of Tower Clock, Gallaudet’s yearbook team.
The issue at hand was that Tower Clock has fallen extremely behind schedule, according to Director of Student Media Sabrina Firl. The discussion began with comments from Firl and Holmes, and both fielded questions from the Student Congress throughout.
Firl expressed that Elvis Zornoza, Editor-in-Chief of Tower Clock, repeatedly assured her that his team was doing well; Firl was unable to personally attend their meetings due to other commitments and repeatedly emphasized that she had “trust” in the team to complete their work in a timely manner. Tower Clock was expected to complete a few pages a week since August. As of the end of January, they had no full pages completed. Holmes explained that Tower Clock’s funding was frozen last semester as a result.
The discussion on this issue was lengthy and lively, no doubt partly due to the meeting having already run for over three hours. Several senators questioned the extent of Firl’s responsibility in the matter in her role as Director of Student Media. Questions related to the freezing of Tower Clock’s funding were directed at Holmes, while others discussed what SBG’s action regarding Tower Clock’s falling behind schedule should be. It was explained that Zornoza himself could be replaced for breach of contract. Ultimately, no decision was reached. Firl had given Tower Clock a deadline to complete 6 full pages by Friday, February 6th. The Student Congress agreed to discuss the issue at their next meeting, seemingly waiting to see if Zornoza and the rest of the Tower Clock team would be able to meet this deadline.
The senators moved to close the meeting at approximately 10:45 p.m. A sense of fatigue was in the air as senators went to eat at Rathskellar, stayed to chat with friends, or headed home.