The University of Massachusetts Student Government Association resumed their legislative session Wednesday night following the summer recess, appointing senators to committees and voting to approve the election results for the class of 2025.

The senate began by approving the fall 2021 election results for the freshman class. The election commissioner, Liam Harney, a junior legal studies major, presented the election results and participation rate and noted that there were no complaints issued. Additionally, due to an SGA judicial ruling, the spring 2021 election results had to be re-certified following an injunction last semester.

The meeting was presided over by the newly elected Speaker, Patrick Collins, a junior studying political science, and Assistant Speaker Julia Curto, a junior studying sports management and legal studies. President Prabhu Rajkumar, a junior studying computer science, and Vice President Benjamin Katzman, a junior studying economics and finance, joined them to oversee the meeting.

Numerous senators discussed the recent protests that have taken place outside of the Theta Chi fraternity, noting that while they supported the protestors, they denounced the use of violence that had occurred. Many, including Chair of the Administrative Affairs Committee Hayden Latimer-Ireland and Secretary of the Registry Shayan Raza, also noted that the Survivor’s Bill of Rights — a referendum that was approved by the student body — was not currently being implemented by UMass administration.

At one point during the meeting, there was an incident where a student refused to wear a mask to cover his nose, an action that directly disobeyed the University’s COVID-19 mask policy. After a senator issued a point of personal preference for him to wear his mask correctly, he instead left the meeting.

Alex Genovese can be reached at [email protected]. He can be followed on Twitter at @alex_genovese1.