Students wielding signs of protest packed the seats and lined the walls of Monday’s Student Government Association (SGA) meeting in a display of discontent over a motion to abolish the Center for Educational Policy and Advocacy (CEPA), which was eventually withdrawn.

CEPA is an advocacy organization that works to organize around student issues in order to create a campus environment that is more inclusive and responsive to student needs, according to the group’s web page. It focuses on labor issues, gender issues, campus culture and access and affordability of higher education.

The motion arose, in part, as a result of budgetary concerns raised by the Ways and Means Committee during their annual allocation of funds to registered student organizations and student groups. The 2012 budget totaled a record $2.3 million and will be used to fund 133 RSOs, nine agencies and eight government organizations, said chairman of Ways and Means Dan Stratford.

“[The motion] wasn’t meant to destroy CEPA,” said Senator Keith Lema, a co-sponsor of the motion. He said it was intended to make CEPA a branch of the SGA.

“We feel like protecting [the SGA’s] long-term financial health is most important,” said Lema.

Stratford estimated that the SGA’s reserves would be depleted within two years if spending remained at its current level, despite his committee’s recommendation to increase the Student Activities Trust Fund (SATF) fee from $94 to $97 – a move that would raise an estimated $60,000.

If reserves dip into negative territory, he said that the SATF fee will likely have to be increased by a significant amount, though any increase over seven percent would have to be approved by students through a referendum.

The reserves have been depleted “due to the sheer number of organizations that we have had apply for funding,” said Stratford, adding, “We will have to be more austere in the future.”

As an agency, SGA bylaws require CEPA to employ a full-time director. Removing CEPA’s agency status and incorporating it more closely with the SGA would eliminate this requirement. The current graduate student coordinator Cameron Russell receives a salary of $25,000 per year.

The motion’s sponsors thought this money would be better used to fund the ever-growing number of student organizations.

“The cost of one graduate position could easily fund 25 groups that are getting a budget for the first time,” said Senator Nathan Lamb during the meeting.

The motion also stated that CEPA’s role on campus is redundant in that other RSOs and the SGA itself “provide similar roads of activism, outreach and education free of charge.”

“The responsibilities as written out in the bylaws are essentially the same,” said Lema. However, he noted that the bylaws were written long ago and in many cases no longer fit the actual function of the SGA.

“I see [the SGA] senate as a legislative body,” said CEPA’s Organizing and Training Director Sophia Zaman, who is also an SGA senator. “CEPA is an advocacy body that is trained to organize. The SGA does not have that training.”

Russell said that CEPA does serve a function similar as the SGA in that they often advocate for the same issues. He said he wouldn’t be against closer integration with the SGA in an ideal world, but he feels the separation they currently enjoy is necessary to maintain the effectiveness of the agency.

“We don’t want to be a part of SGA because we are much more powerful separately,” said Russell. He said the fact that CEPA does not report directly to the administration makes them better able hold those administrators accountable.

Zaman agreed with this sentiment and pointed to the “Involve Us” campaign – an effort to increase student say in UMass’ administrative decisions – as an example of CEPA’s effectiveness. She said the campaign never would have been possible if CEPA had to answer to administrators.

Russell feels that the ideal arrangement would be that if the SGA fails to achieve what is best for the student body while negotiating with administrators, they would alert CEPA and allow them to help organize the student body around the cause. He said they did not do this during the changes to Residential Life’s peer mentor program earlier this year.

Communication between CEPA and the SGA needs to be much better, said Russell. Although the two organizations occupy offices only several yards away from each other, CEPA was informed of the decision to remove their agency status only three days before the voting process began.

“The lack of process is hugely concerning,” said Russell. “This motion almost directly parallels what happened with ‘Involve Us.’”

Another breakdown in communication came when the SGA commissioned CEPA to conduct a study regarding the impact of the changes to Residential Life on students. CEPA members were not made aware of the request until it was put before the senate for voting.

SGA bylaws state that if a motion concerning an agency arises, the involved agency must be notified within 24 hours of the decision and allowed to speak on its behalf at the senate meeting in which the motion will be voted on.

“Nobody thought it out beforehand,” said Zaman. “Luckily several of us are senators of the SGA.”

The withdrawal of the motion means that CEPA will continue to function as is for at least one more year. Lema said that this has been an ongoing issue for years that the SGA intends to address next semester.

He said that the SGA is considering the creation of a standing committee designed to look into agencies and properly define their functions.

“[The motion] still makes financial sense, but we want to have an open dialogue beforehand,” said Lema. “It was too short of a timeline” to enact such significant change.

“We don’t want CEPA to disappear because we appreciate what they do,” he said.

Zachary Weishar can be reached at [email protected].