The Downtown campus student government appointed a new chief of staff and approved more than $6,000 of financial requests in its Senate meeting Friday.
Creative writing senior Anthony Cinquepalmi was unanimously approved as President Joseph Grossman’s chief of staff after journalism sophomore Travis Moore resigned from the position in September.
Cinquepalmi could not attend the meeting because he was out of town, but the Senate questioned him prior to the vote over speakerphone.
He told the Senate and staff he wants to help the Senate and Grossman with their work.
“I really want to help organization-wise and be a mediator between everyone on the staff, the Senate and Joe,” Cinquepalmi said.
Cinquepalmi has never taken any classes or participated in any clubs on the Downtown campus, which Grossman said isn’t a requirement in the constitution.
College of Public Programs Sen. Cy Porrus said Cinquepalmi isn’t directly involved in the ASU Downtown campus, but is involved in the downtown Phoenix community. Cinquepalmi works downtown for Giant Coffee, located on First Street and McDowell Road, where he said he has gained leadership skills that will make up for his lack of experience with student government.
“I think my connections with people who work in the downtown community, which I’ve built over the past two years, would really be of use,” Cinquepalmi said.
Cinquepalmi said his job brings him downtown up to four days a week, and he’d be willing to come to the Downtown campus whenever needed for the position.
Grossman said the chief of staff position is the most important person on his staff, as that person helps maximize what gets done.
“This position is essentially Joe’s right hand and I’d strive to be an extension of Joe when he isn’t available,” Cinquepalmi said.
He said one of his goals is to promote spirit, pride and tradition not only on campus, but within the downtown community as well.
Also, Grossman said Cinquepalmi’s writing skills will help him when giving speeches at the capitol.
“All in all, I need someone I can trust, (who) understands the situation I’m in, gets the job done and does a great job,” Grossman said. “I’m fully confident in his ability and think he, by far, is the best person for this position.”
After the new member’s confirmation, the Associated Press Television and Radio Association and the Radio Television Digital News Association each received $1,776.24 to attend the same conference in California on Dec. 1.
USGD recently set a guideline stating two organizations can receive up to $1,800 each to go to the same conference, while a third or fourth organization would only receive half of that, Finance Director Sam Tongue said.
The Travel and Tourism Student Association’s request for $316.94 was rejected in a 2-6 vote because the organization did not put their request through the budget allocations committee. However, the ASU Veteran’s Club also didn’t go through the BAC for their request of $218.92, which was approved unanimously.
Tongue said the main difference between the requests is the magnitude and timeliness of the Veteran’s Club’s request, which is to help with their Veteran’s Day Parade.
Attending the BAC meeting with requests isn’t mandatory to make a financial request, but is strongly recommended. Grossman said he finds it very frustrating when organizations go around the process, and felt an example needed to be made.
ASU Up ‘til Dawn received its full request of $1,165 to hold a fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital on Nov. 10 in Tempe. Tongue said the event was being held in Tempe solely because there wasn’t adequate space downtown.
Downtown Alive! received $380.40 for a Coffee Crawl event, reimbursement for a previous event and renewal of their website domain name.
Health Occupation Students of America received $748 of its requested $1,047 to help put on their information sessions. The amount was amended because the food served isn’t from approved vendors, and its t-shirt costs are above the guidelines set for financial requests.
Contact the reporter at kevin.p.fallon@asu.edu
Editor’s note: Sam Tongue, finance director for USGD, works as a blogger for the Downtown Devil. He did not contribute to the reporting of this article.
