The first University of Maine General Student Senate (GSS) meeting of the spring semester, held on Tuesday, Jan. 26, saw new members sworn in along with 20 other items on the agenda.
New Senators:
Adam Fortier-Brown, Gregory Warmuth, Alex Leathers, Mary-Celeste Floreani, Taylor Locke, Joseph Frazier and Jonathan Deschaine were sworn in as new senators at the meeting on Tuesday night.
Zachary White, Shayne Anderson, Maria Maffucci and Ryan Nicols were also sworn in, but had already been senators previously.
Allocations
$200 was allocated to the Tango Club for their office budget.
$200 was allocated to Respect, Education, Action, Community, Hope (R.E.A.C.H.) for their office budget.
$996 was allocated to the Traditional Music and Dance Club for the Contra Dance.
$960 was allocated to the Maine Animal Club for a hotel for Northeast Student Affiliate.
$975 was allocated to the Volleyball Club to pay for tournaments
$1,000 was allocated to the Figure Skating Club after they addressed the GSS with a request for money to help fund ice time at the Alfond Arena. The Figure Skating Club practices weekly and has 11 members with four more joining this semester.
Senators did note that their budget for this semester is $12,707.27, which is one of the smallest budgets that the GSS has had in recent years.
Club Presentations
The Athletic Training Student Association thanked the GSS for partial funding for their trip to the Eastern Athletic Training Association Convention in Boston, where they had the opportunity to network and learn about new practices in the field.
The Catholic Student Association thanked the GSS for funds to attend a student leadership summit with students from all over the country. “The knowledge and encounters with Christ were irreplaceable,” secretary Logan Gerchman said.
The Field Hockey Club thanked the GSS for the funds given at the beginning of last semester, which allowed them to play at six games, which was more than previous years.
The Green Team President Jason Pelletier thanked the GSS for their help with renting vans for the Green Team and the Bodwell Center to help students from different organizations around campus be transported to the Take Pride in Acadia Day event.
The Traditional Music and Dance Club thanked GSS for the money that allowed them to host three dances with free admission, some which had attendance of around 80 people.
Nominations and Elections
Although there were nominations for many positions, the only people elected at the meeting were the members of the Student Organization Committee (SOC). As the group was meeting the following day Senators Warmuth, Nicols, Frazier and Norris ran unopposed and were given positions on SOC. The nominations made for other positions will be voted on at the next meeting.
