On Tuesday, September 12, 2023, the Stockton Student Senate held a meeting to discuss both Senate involvement on campus and Stockton’s new plans for the Atlantic City Campus.

During the meeting, Student Senate Vice President Garrett Testut announced that the Senate “doesn’t know all the details at this time, [but] Stockton plans to spend over a million dollars into the development of a new building at the A.C. Campus, which will likely be placed over their current commuter parking lot.”

This information caused many Senators to comment, including senators Juan Diego Chaparro Villarreal and Carson Clemans. Both stated that Stockton already has questionable relations with parking management at Galloway and reducing it in A.C. would further add to the problem. News of this construction on the A.C. campus comes just as @stocktonsaa, The University’s Student and Alumni Association’s official Instagram account, posted a reel announcing that they plan to raffle off reserved parking spots for the 2023 semester—an arguably questionable decision that has caused uproar within the student body.

Another senator, Gianna Terpolilli, claimed that “The A.C. Campus doesn’t come close to offering the full range of courses that its main campus does. Additionally, while it isn’t technically a satellite school, it can’t compete with its main campus and doesn’t justify further funding.”

In response to Terpolilli’s comment, other senators drew comparisons to other universities, such as Rutgers, and their multi-campus practices—the main difference between these institutions and Stockton being the luxury of space that Rutgers has to build. 

Some comments from the senators may have differed in opinion regarding the value of the A.C. campus, but the Senate did reach the consensus that adding additional structure onto the campus would be wasteful and that Stockton has the potential to build up both their campus locations by improving what is already there.

The next Stockton Student Senate meeting open to students will be held on Tuesday, September 26, in the Townsend Residential Life Center.