The University of Massachusetts Student Government Association met Wednesday to officially swear in two members of the cabinet and go through senate training.
Freshman psychology major Tess Weisman and junior operations and information management and political science major Tasneem Kelly were sworn in to be secretary of University policy and secretary of external affairs, respectively. Both were confirmed in the previous meeting.
The senate then went into a training led by Speaker Patrick Collins. Collins first led the senate through a “How to Draft a Bill” presentation. Among the reasons for a bill, Collins pointed to “something you want SGA to do [or] something you want admin to do.” He added that “one specific thing is if there is a certain social issue […] SGA can sign off on a letter supporting something.”
Collins drove the point of reaching out to the student body for feedback. He noted that one of the methods that the SGA hopes to utilize for gauging student’s attitudes is sample surveys. He noted, however, that to be “supported by the student body,” the threshold is 150 students. According to UMass’ 2020 enrollment report, the University has more than 24,000 undergraduate students.
The Senate also discussed its attendance policy. According to Collins, one half absences will be issued for unexcused Senate or committee absences. “If you have two, [Associate Speaker] Julia [Curto] will send you an email warning,” Collins said. Curto then added that they have already had to issue four warnings. “Upon the accumulation of three unexcused absences, it is an automatic resignation,” Collins said.
The Senate is considering moving their meeting times from 6 p.m. to later on in the evening, 6:30 or 7 p.m. due to “a lot of people having classes until 6:30.” Required classes, personal illness and religious observances were among the excused absences. Collins added, however, that “no more than four excused absences for ‘required class meetings’ will be granted to a Senator during the regular period.”
The SGA ended their meeting by discussing the upcoming University Programming Council Homecoming Parade. “Now is the time to secure a golf cart for this year’s homecoming parade! Prizes will be awarded for the best decorated floats, up to $500 for towards your organization!” read a recent Instagram post by University Programming Council. “It’s gonna be really fun and a great event for us to build spirit,” said Natalie Rubin, chair of the outreach and development committee.
Alex Genovese can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @alex_genovese1.
