On the first day back from spring break, the SGA met briefly, presenting the results of the recent SGA elections and handling other business.
The only special order of the night was the unanimous ratification of the SGA election results. President-elect Zachary Broughton and his vice president Emily Hajjar will prepare, along with newly elected student trustee Megan Kingston, to assume their positions at the conclusion of the semester.
Current SGA President Akshay Kapoor was unable to attend the meeting, but he urged students to attend Governor Deval Patrick’s visit to the University of Massachusetts campus this Thursday . Patrick will be speaking in the Student Union Ballroom at noon to discuss his plans for raising state revenue and funding higher education.
Senator Mike Cusher presented the subcommittee report for the Ways and Means Committee, highlighting budget difficulties in allocating funds for over 200 Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) on campus.
The committee is granted a total of $3 million to disperse amongst the RSOs. Based on preliminary calculations, Senator Cusher estimates that on average each student organization will only be able to receive one-sixth of their requested allocation.
Speaker of the Senate Hayley Mandeville made an announcement that the Atlantic 10 Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has opened voting for the 2013 video competition. The competition provides universities within the Atlantic 10 Conference the opportunity to use creativity to present and promote the work of student athletes.
The contest began in 2011 as a way to collectively promote NCAA and institutional core values like sportsmanship and a sense of community. The theme for this year’s competition, decided by an SAAC vote last fall, is the “Evolution of the Student-Athlete”.
UMass has entered a video in the competition and a link can be found on the UMass Athletics website. Voting will be available until the end of the month on Sunday, March 31. The results of the competition will be announced Tuesday, April 2.
Eric Bosco can be reached at [email protected]
