On Monday night, the Student Government Association of the University of Massachusetts voted to appoint Senator Ivory Moulton as the chair of the Outreach and Development Committee.

Moulton, who is a second-year senator, has been the acting chair of ODC for the past two weeks, after the previous chair, Isa Leonard-Rose, stepped down.

“I think in Senate it’s good to be a role model for [the committee]…In terms of leadership, I think it’s also good to advocate for senators in their beliefs in leadership, I should be going to them if they have any concerns, I should always be their advocate at all times,” Moulton said, responding to a question about her perspective on the responsibilities of a committee chair.

Of her plans for outreach across campus, Moulton noted that the Southwest Residential Area is underrepresented in the Senate, saying that she hopes to coordinate engagement with that area. She further voiced her hopes for a similar agenda with transfer student residential areas, which have been overlooked in the past.

Moulton was also asked about her plans to organize outreach movements that would work to address the racist incidents at UMass.

“I think that SGA should be involved with everything going on with these hate crimes. I definitely would look into collaborating with organizations such as CEPA or the Racial Justice Coalition…it should be an SGA thing…but I think it should not be just our opinions on how these things are handled or how we should outreach for these things. I think it should be more collaborative campus wide,” she said.

At the end of the meeting, the SGA hosted a “Committee of the Whole” event in order to spark important discussions and build stronger relationships within Senate.

Senators were asked to speak with each other in small groups and answer questions concerning how they were personally dealing with the current campus climate of racist incidents. They were further prompted to discuss how they could potentially enact change in their leadership positions. Further plans concerning these issues are to come.

Secretary of University Policy and External Affairs Elizabeth Donoghue also spoke at the meeting about her plans to bring a “Wellness machine” to campus, which is in its beginning stages. The machines are “vending machine[s] that dispense various health-related products” and would be potentially be placed in the Student Union or Campus Center.

Also during the meeting, Kyle Kendall, a senator currently sitting on the Athletic Faculty Senate Committee, announced ongoing talks to cap the amount of student attendance at athletic games due to growing numbers. Kendall also spoke about efforts to define how the student code of conduct should be applied to athletic games.

Throughout the meeting, there were a number of updates on the iClicker access program, which started earlier this year. Senator Colleen Coakley announced that the initiative would be reaching out to professors to help collect iClickers, as well as would be ordering new iClickers themselves. Students can access more information about the lending library on the SGA website.

Editor’s note: Elizabeth Donoghue is a Collegian contributor.

Irina Costache can be reached at [email protected].