On Tuesday, March 28, 2023, the General Student Senate (GSS) announced open positions for the upcoming school year, heard from Associate Provost for Student Success and Innovation Dr. Scott Marzili and shared weekly reports.
Director of Communications Hope Bifulco reported that student government executive jobs are now posted on Careerlink for vice president for Financial Affairs, vice president for Student Entertainment, assistant vice president for Student Entertainment, Director of Communications, vice president for Student Organizations, vice president of Student Leadership, Director of Technology and Board of Trustees representative.
Marzili spoke to the senate regarding student success. He hopes to start conducting focus groups with students in Alumni Hall, with the goal of learning what students like and dislike about the University of Maine. Marzili also spoke on the Student Success Hub. The mission of the Student Success Hub is to help first-year students get acquainted with the campus and their college workload management. General support for academics and student life would also be available for all students.
“For freshmen, for the 2,000 new freshmen that come in, there would be a caseload manager,” Marzili said. “We would have roughly five to seven student advocates who each have 350 to 400 students. What I mean by caseload management is someone who is responsible for emailing and communicating with them weekly.”
VP Delorge then gave his executive report, saying that both student referendum items were passed in the recent election. He also repeated that Zoom streaming is now available for students to access senate meetings remotely.
Vice President for Student Entertainment Owen Hebda reported that there will be an egg hunt on April 10. There will be 2,000 eggs scattered around the mall, with some golden eggs that contain special prizes.
Hebda also attended another Maine Days committee meeting last week and reported that each day will have a specific theme. However, themes are still being decided upon.
Vice President for Financial Affairs Paige Allen reported that the projected unallocated budget is now at $70,965.35.
Services representative Memphis Peterson reported the bookstore has been approved for renovation, with plans to make it more digital. Peterson also reported that the university hotel is currently under construction.
The Student Construction Association appeared before the senate to present on their recent trip to Las Vegas for the CONEXPO convention which was funded by Student Government Inc.
Several acts were brought before the senate.
The first to allocate $1,500 to the Black Bear Beekeepers for a honey bottling tank, bottles, lids and labels was passed by the senate.
The second act to allocate $1,200 to the Beta Eta Chapter of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity for banners, fliers, parking lot closures, a portapotty, a fire permit and wood for their annual sleepout event was passed by the senate.
The third act to allocate $3,000 to Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority for a venue for their Mister Fraternity event was passed by the senate.
The fourth act brought before the senate was an act to urge President Ferrini-Mundy, Vice President of Student Affairs Robert Dana and the EOC to exempt tasers from the UMaine weapons policy prohibited items list. After a long period of discussion and debate, the senate voted to refer the act to the services committee for further editing.
Another act was brought before the senate which would modify the Student Organization Recognition Policy, Article III, Section 2 — suspension. Senator Tripp briefly spoke on some of the revisions that were made since last week when this was originally voted on. The senate passed the act unanimously.
An act to revise the VPSL job description to better reflect the needs of UMSG Inc. was brought before the senate. This act subtly changed wording and verbiage to the job description. The senate voted to pass the act with minimal contention.
Lastly, Kaitlyn Sterner resigned as the Sergeant at Arms. Nominations for the Sergeant at Arms position were made. There will be another period for nominations during next week’s meeting. Voting will take place once the nominations have been finalized.
