The Undergraduate Senate of the Student Government Association of the University of Massachusetts Amherst held its 1929th Regular Meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union.
The meeting began with an announcement from Senator Darren Truong regarding a report analyzing how the SGA structure and responsibilities have changed over time and identifying possible amendments to improve SGA efficiency. He said he hopes the report and the first amendments will be finished by the end of the semester.
Esther Onyeka, Chair of the Social Justice and Empowerment Committee, addressed the senate, requesting sign-ups for a Spread Love Not Hate tabling event on Friday, to promote racial and social justice during Anti-Racism Week.
During the Committee of the Whole, Lindsey Koch and Adam Cebulski of Transform Forward presented their ongoing SGA audit. The initiative aims to review SGA’s processes and procedures to ensure they align with organizational goals. This process includes analyzing student activity fees, budget allocation, funding structures and reviewing the SGA constitution and bylaws.
This week, Koch and Cebulski will meet virtually with SGA leaders, senators, advisors, support staff, registered student organization (RSO) leaders, and agency advisors to learn more about different organizations’ cultures, structures and perspectives. The project is expected to conclude by the end of the semester.
Senator Jacob Nevins expressed concern about equal RSO representation in the study and the apprehension among RSOs regarding the audit.
“I’m very concerned that this is going to turn into a free-for-all within RSOs. I know a lot of them are going to hear ‘audit’ and they’re going to be scared, some might not understand exactly what it is,” Nevins said. “I’m concerned that there isn’t going to be an unequal representation within the different categories of RSOs.”
Following the audit presentation, President Colin Humphries introduced an initial proposal to implement a minimum guaranteed amount (MGA) and cap system for the Established Student Organization (ESO), emergency funding, and the DIA fund. For the second consecutive year, ESOs have been subject to increasingly severe across-the-board cuts.
“The way that we currently do our finances is not long-term fiscally responsible, nor is it something that can be maintained,” Humphries said. “That is why we are seeing a lot of the problems we are facing.”
The MGA would establish a minimum amount of funding guaranteed for agencies and RSOs, calculated annually to account for new RSOs. Under the proposed initiative three-fifths of available funds would be allocated to agencies, while the remaining two-fifths would go to RSOs.
Groups could request funding beyond the minimum but would not be guaranteed to receive it. Additional funding would be determined through an across-the-board cuts process.
Humphries also proposed promoting alternative funding sources, including fundraising, grants, membership dues, and travel funds.
The proposal sparked discourse among the senators.
Senator Julia DeMarco, of the Undergraduate Registry Oversight Committee, said her committee is working to establish a new student group category, Registered Student Group (RSG), described as a more informal version of an ESO.
“Are you aware of the work that the RSG subcommittee is doing and how we pretty much have a very similar goal just in a way that wouldn’t impose funding restrictions on ESOs that do need funding to operate?” DeMarco asked Humphries.
“I’ve been made aware of those efforts by third parties, but I have not had anybody come to present that proposal, but I’d love to hear about it,” Humphries responded.
Humphries and Senator Maia Shteyman said the proposal is just a plan as of now and can be played around with.
Shteyman encouraged discussion about the proposal to reach a solution that benefits everyone.
“I think President Humphries and Vice President Leone are here and they’re presenting to all of you because they want your feedback, they want your buy-in. At the end of the day, if this is a project that doesn’t necessarily fit our school, that’s fine, and that is up to us to decide,” she said. “We are here to represent the undergraduate student body, and we are here to make the best decisions that benefit the undergraduate student body.”
In addition, Shteyman said the proposals are considering worst-case scenarios.
A few shared concerns that the initiative would end up cutting the budget of larger RSOs more significantly and would have a more prominent impact on these organizations.
“If every group is requesting hundreds of thousands of dollars, we do not have the money to fund that, and then the smaller RSOs suffer,” said Dylan Bellerive, Secretary of Finance.
Humphries acknowledged that some groups need more funds due to costly events or larger memberships. He said these factors will be considered when revising the proposal while ensuring smaller RSOs still receive adequate funding.
“We want groups to be more funded, but funds are required to be able to do that, and more funds usually mean higher tuition. So, it’s one of those things where you have to balance. We have to find the right balance,” Humphries said.
S. 69 to appoint Fernanda Arreola and Abigail Fechisso to the Committee on Academic Oversight, S. 70 to appoint Brian Beltrami, Liam Black and Ella Bahmann to the Committee on Administrative Affairs, S. 71 to appoint Marcus Lefort, Jacob Holahan and Sudhip Nashi to the Committee on Outreach and Development, S. 72 to appoint Charles Walker-Hoover, Joshua Gatoo, Ashley Chamu and Elizabeth Kim to the Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, S. 73 to appoint Hai Tran and Thanh Le to the Committee on Undergraduate Registry Oversight and S. 75 to appoint Jonathan Shi to the Committee on Ways and Means were passed.
S. 76 was passed, reappointing Leo Nguyen from the Committee on Undergraduate Registry Oversight to the Committee on Ways and Means.
After some discussion and inquiry involving a potential conflict of interest, S. 77 and S. 78 were passed to appoint Juan Valencia and Ezrina Seo to the positions of Elections Commissioners.
Finally, S. 79, S. 80 and S. 81 were passed to appoint Valentina Ramirez, Keira Cook and Sara Johnson to the SGA payroll.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 10:06 p.m.
Julianna Pinelli can be reached at [email protected] and Lily Powell can be reached at [email protected].
