Following the President/Vice President and Student Trustees on Feb. 26 at 4:30, the Undergraduate Senate of the Student Government Administration (SGA) held their weekly meeting in the Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union.
The 1931th meeting began with Ray La Raja, and Scott Auerbach from the UMass Amherst Faculty for Open Inquiry and Civil Dialogue, who announced a program called “Discuss and Dine.” The program aims to put together campus leaders and UMass faculty in a series of luncheons to discuss what life is like for current UMass students.
In explaining the purpose of these discussions, Auerbach explained their interest in having dialogue with members of the SGA and asked, “You are the leaders of campus, and we need to learn from you, what is it like to be a student now?”
The first “Discuss and Dine” will be held on Tuesday, March 11, with the location yet to be announced. Any Senate member who attends the “Discuss and Dine” lunch will receive a $25 gift card to the UMass Store.
During Main Motions, S.84 to amend Title VII, Chapter 7, Section 6 of the General Bylaws of the SGA, was presented to align the bylaws with the current application procedure. The motion was sponsored by Chair of the Undergraduate Registry Oversight Committee Hai Viet Tran, Chair of The Ways and Means Committee Maia Shteyman, Secretary of Registry Ranya Merchant, Chair of the Administrative Affairs Committee Valeria Centinaro and the Committee of Administrative Affairs.
The sponsors explained that the bylaws of the Registered Students Organization (RSO) application process are outdated, as it states that the application process occurs in the fall and spring semesters. Tran said that they want to “make sure that the bylaw reflects what we are doing currently.” The motion passed unanimously, making the bylaws state that the process takes place during the fall semester.
“We need to align what we are doing with our bylaws,” added Merchant.
During Cabinet and Senate Committee reports, Secretary of Finance Dylan Bellerive, Acting Secretary of Public Relations and marketing Hadiya Ahmad, and Chair Shteyman all promoted the panel being held tomorrow (Feb. 27) in room N151 of the Integrated Learning Center (ILC) at 6:00 p.m. to discuss the increase in the Student Activities Trust Fund Fee. This open forum intends to keep students informed and provides a space to ask questions about these changes.
S.85, which places an advisory referendum on the 2025 SGA ballot, was passed after amendments addressing context information and language, and debate. This advisory referendum gathers campus opinion to propose the idea to administration to put a Dunkin’, (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) on campus, providing a “convenient and familiar option for students.” Despite being a staple of Massachusetts culture, UMass does not currently have a Dunkin’ location on campus. UMass is currently contracted with other large coffee chains however, including Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee.
S. 86 was passed, after amendments, to place another advisory referendum on the SGA Ballot, titled Student Voices in Investments, to allow students to vote if they would “support urging the UMass administration to establish formal mechanisms for student oversight and transparency on their investment decisions of the UMass Foundation, including but not limited to direct investments and index funds? A ‘YES’ vote supports urging the UMass administration to create formal avenues for student oversight and transparency on UMass Foundation investments. A ‘NO’ vote opposes urging the UMass administration to create such avenues.” The motion was passed, adding the advisory referendum to the 2025 SGA ballot.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:45 p.m. after 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Abby Joyce can be reached at [email protected], Nathan Legare can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X (formerly Twitter) @Legare_Nathan.
