The Student Government Association (SGA) of the University of Massachusetts Amherst held its weekly Senate meeting on Oct. 16 in the Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union. The 1920th regular meeting was just short of two hours.

During announcements, Allison Butler, a representative from the Academic Matters Council, spoke to open the meeting. Her presentation, titled “Academic Matters Council: Policy work on Academic Integrity,” explained the council’s year-long project to change the Academic Honesty Policy into the new Academic Integrity Policy.

“The current policy is 20th century in a 21st century classroom,” Butler stated. In wanting to change the language, Butler explained the goal of making the new policy “accessible and manageable,” while maintaining that it is currently “quite cumbersome for students; it’s cumbersome for faculty.”

The new policy, which is scheduled to proceed through a vote within the Academic Matters Council, is aimed to be sent to the Faculty Senate and approved by December. It addresses new policies and clarities about Generative AI and wants to approach these changes “from the position of trusting our students.”

Butler explained that students who are often dishonest are doing so under pressure and as a result of “external factors.” The new policy attempts to dismantle changes of the Generative AI policy, and move away from interpretations of using AI as “accusations rather than curiosity.”

The Academic Integrity Policy also includes new language regarding instructors, clarifying inclusivity of teaching assistants, graduate students and other instructors in addition to professors. Additionally, Butler says that instead of “gutting” the current policies, they intend to amend them. The AIP also has new information about the grievance policy to allow students to dispute grades that they believe were “arbitrary or capricious.”

Associate Speaker Melena Amoratis announced the opening of positions to the Senate. The first open position, the clerk of the Senate, will take minutes of the Senate meetings, assist in making the weekly agendas in the correct format as well as manage the motions system. This person will also work with Secretary of Technology Anisha Sharda to maintain the Senate page on the SGA website. The second open position, the records officer, will be responsible for updating the Senate Records system, the Legislative Tracker and act as the records access officer to provide “support to the legislative officers and individuals with Public Records Requests.”

“This is a great way to get your foot in the door,” Amoratis promoted. “These skills can help you become a chair or a member of exec.”

Speaker Michel Flangan reaffirmed to the Senate the benefits of these positions and said the roles are integral “to oversee our overall transparency as a [legislative] branch.”

President Colin Humphries added a few updates during Officer Reports and explained that he is working with Chief of Staff Anthony Nassar to distinguish the duties of this position and delegate its specific tasks. They intend to complete a bylaw reform about the position to amend the bylaws about this position that are currently “very vague.” Humphries also attended the SGA Town Hall last week and said it was a “great opportunity to talk to constituents,” and hopes to have more such meetings in the future with an open forum format to reach a larger audience.

Vice President Dale Leone detailed that the boycott, divestments and sanctions (BDS) resolution that was passed at last week’s Senate meeting will be sent out to the board of trustees next week after review.

Chair Maia Shteyman and Chair Kundayi Mazando were sworn into their positions as chair of the Ways & Means Committee and chair of the Undergraduate Services Committee respectively.

Flanagan gave a demonstration of the new features of the SGA website, including new links to Senate records system, descriptions and overviews of committees, the SGA calendar, the Legislation Tracker and headshots and contact information of the senators. Flanagan and Amoratis thanked Sharda for her work and updates to the website.

Amoratis announced her plans to collaborate with the secretary of public relations and the secretary of technology to make Zoom meetings an option for the Senate. Additionally, she is working on Parliamentary procedure to learn more to act as chief parliamentarian for the Senate.

Secretary of Finance Dylan Bellerive announced that he has officially started the audit process and will be reaching out to Registered Student Organization (RSO) leaders about this process. He added that he had completed interviews for undersecretary of finance. Secretary of Registry Ranya Merchant and Secretary of External Affairs Kenyatta Heavlow are also in the process of soon hiring undersecretaries.

Secretary of Diversity Anaia Lombo announced, “with the DEI task force, we are still waiting on applications.” She added, “If you are an RSO leader make sure you join.” She detailed their goals to make better policies for students and student groups on campus.

Secretary of Health and Wellbeing Kimberly Manyanga has been working with her undersecretaries to “work more on joint health initiatives.” She explained that there will be Narcan training for SGA members in the coming weeks to learn “why it is best practice for as many people as possible to carry Narcan.” Here, students will learn more about the opioid epidemic and will be trained on the detection of an overdose and the use and administration of Narcan and a breathing mask.

During Officer Reports, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Charlie Goodchild discussed a new update in the Bromery Center for the Arts, to allow more accessible signage in the building to clarify to students and visitors to navigate the building along with new renovations around campus for academic buildings and parking lots.

During Senate Committee Reports, Chair of the Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment Esther Onyeka explained her recent efforts in tabling and spreading word and assisting student voter registration to encourage more students to vote in the upcoming election.

Shteyman briefed the Senate of her efforts in a budget request for religious advocacy groups and on her meeting with Student Affairs and Campus Life (SACL) regarding agencies and to “keep agencies fully operational next year.” She also held sessions helping committee members. She explained efforts to have council presidents once again to encourage transparency for RSO’s on campus as well.

Motion S.30 and S.31 were tabled until next week, when Chair of the Administrative Affairs Committee Valeria Centinaro can attend and further explain the contents of the motions. Motion S.33 was also tabled for next week’s Senate meeting to allow further revision.

Motion S.32 was passed, creating a new sub-position to serve under the Secretary of External Affairs. This motion passed. 

A subsidiary motion was also passed to amend the name of the new position, and change the title from “Undersecretary of External Affairs” to be “Associate of External Affairs” within the S.32 motion. This motion was also passed. 

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:15 p.m.

Abby Joyce can be reached at [email protected]

This article has been edited to correct the purpose of S.32, and fix spelling errors