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A variety of activity, with both guest speakers and senate committee elections, kept senators busy at the Nov. 16 session of University of Maine Student Government.
UMaine Dean of Students Robert Dana explained new changes in administration policy on how to handle what he called “misdemeanor” alcohol and drug- related crimes, calling them “effective, not invasive.”
Citing more than 1,000 cases, Dana explained that students previously went through an “onerous” and protracted bureaucratic process of referrals and meetings if they were caught in violation of the alcohol and drug policy. Students will now be directly referred to the university’s Alcohol and Drug Educational Program. Dana said he wanted students to see there is value in changing their habits and not to become disillusioned with an overbearing process.
“What we’re doing is eliminating all the front-end happenings,” he said. “The truth of the matter is, and the research will tell you this, with too big a treatment, what ends up happening is that you get backlash and people sort of disrespecting the system.”
Dana also said that Greek life at UMaine is doing well — growing, in fact, despite the declining number of students participating in fraternities and sororities nationwide. As a result, the university is interested in “firming up” the Greek advisor role in an effort to expand communication.
“The more bonded to each other that we are, the tighter that we are with each other, the more likely the Greeks will be successful,” Dana said.
Senators also heard Chris Hinds from the Bangor-based accounting firm Loiselle, Goodwin and Hinds deliver the firm’s annual audit on Student Government Inc. As a nonprofit company, Student Government is required to undergo a yearly financial evaluation. Though there were no major faults, some deficiencies exist, according to Hinds — including having an outside auditor generate the organization’s financial statements.
In most instances the firm did not recommend changes in procedure, as it would not be cost-effective for an organization the size of Student Government. However, Hinds did state a trend in unallocated funds at year’s end has appeared, and recommended that the leftover money be spent for the students because “that’s what it’s there for.”
Student Government re-elections will be held today as former senate parliamentarian Ryan Gavin and Vice President of Student Organizations Anthony Ortiz vie for the vice- presidential seat. Presidential candidates are Nelson Carson and Chris Knoblock. Fair Elections Practices Comission chairperson Skye Landry, who oversees Student Government elections on campus, briefed the senate on the upcoming re-election process.
According to Landry, at approximately 6 a.m. Nov. 18, every student eligible to vote will receive an e-mail in their FirstClass inbox with a link to a website where they will be able to cast their ballots.
The process will be run by a third-party software company called StudentVoice and each link will be unique, meaning students will only be allowed to vote once. If a student has not voted by 4 p.m., a second e-mail will be sent to remind them to do so.
Some senators were concerned that students would only be available to vote online — there will not be an opportunity to cast a paper ballot in the Wade Center of the Memorial Union, a common feature of past elections — fearing that if problems were encountered, there would be no alternative. Senate Vice President Ross Wolland downplayed the possibility of this occuring.
“The problem with voting in the Wade Center is that you simply can’t cross reference the paper ballots with the electronic ballots,” he said. “This sounds really bad, but there will be, technically, 8,000 links out there that can be used,” indicating while they do not condone it, Student Government cannot prevent people from voting using another student’s link.
Senate also held elections for new subcommittees.
The Executive Budgetary Committee, which oversees all allocations to student organizations in excess of $1,000, will be staffed by Sens. Alex Ortiz, Ben Goodman, Jose Roman and Hannah Hudson.
The Student Organizations Committee, which coordinates campus activities and works with student groups, will be staffed by Sens. Dayna Margarita and Anna Assenmacher.
Sen. Mark Brunton was elected as the sergeant-at-arms, a position that enforces senator attire and removes people from the senate meeting should the occasion arise.
Sen. Peter Christopher was elected as the pro tempore, who serves in the place of the vice president should they be unable to attend the meeting or in instances when the vice president yields the chair to voice their opinions on a piece of legislation.
Sen. Sam Helmke will fulfill the Faculty Senate’s student representative post, serving as a liaison between the two organizations.
Senate also approved a measure from the Administrative and Academic Policy Committee encouraging university administration to retain the current spring break schedule. Other schools in the university system have two one-week breaks, whereas UMaine has a two-week long block of vacation time. There is ongoing discussion at the system level about streamlining and coordinating the schedules.
