The General Student Senate of the University of Maine Student Government, Inc. (UMSG) held its sixth meeting of the semester on Oct. 7, led by President Keegan Tripp and chaired by Vice President Cynthia Shelmerdine. In this session, UMSG finalized new rules for resolution submission.
Club Maintenance
The Senate unanimously approved two clubs for preliminary recognition, the Arm Wrestling Club and the UMaine Political Science Student Association. The former intends to help legitimize the sport of competitive arm wrestling, which club founders referenced as quickly growing in popularity nationwide, while the latter hopes to provide political science students a space to meet and be exposed to professional opportunities.
In addition, the disability advocacy organization Accessibility on Campus was approved for final recognition.
Executive Reports
Vice President of Financial Affairs Joshua Bohm reported that the Senate had $181,227.46 remaining unallocated in its budget.
New Business
The Senate concluded its business regarding a resolution that had been hotly debated for the prior several meetings, that being a bill which would require the addition of a title on all resolutions proposed for consideration by the Senate. While the previous version had been approved by the wider Senate, vetoed by the president’s Cabinet and sent back to the Senate for a second round of debate, this modified version passed without lengthy debate. The Senate will therefore now require titling for newly-proposed resolutions.
In an initiative led by Senator Jeremy Collamore, the chair of the Senate’s Political Activism Committee, the Senate also moved to establish a new special committee called the Voter Involvement and Education Committee. As its name suggests, this committee will function with the intended purpose of improving electoral turnout and civic engagement among UMaine’s student body. This committee will supersede the Political Activism Committee, which Collamore stated had been largely undefined in scope and carried a misleading name that led students to believe its purpose was more partisan than intended.
The Senate also approved $1,380 for the Women in Business organization to attend a professional conference in Portland, Maine.
