The General Student Senate of the University of Maine Student Government, Inc. (UMSG) held its sixth meeting of the semester on Feb. 24, led by President Keegan Tripp and chaired by Vice President Cynthia Shelmerdine. At this meeting, UMSG approved a number of sizable funding requests for student organizations and approved several documents regulating internal documents.
Appointments and Resignations
Senator Briar Chapin resigned.
Club Maintenance
The Storied Writing Club, where members craft responses to creative writing prompts, unanimously earned final recognition.
Kappa Kappa Psi, a band service organization, presented on their successful end of the year banquet held at the conclusion of the marching band season.
Guest Speakers
The 2026 recipients of the Student Leadership Award appeared briefly to be recognized by Vice President of Student Leadership, Nate Feng, and to thank the Senate for the award and associated scholarship.
The awardees were Garrett Laffler, a Resident Assistant in York Hall who focuses on conflict resolution; Ellis Sinclair, a tutor in the Writing Center who works with first-generation students and has done research to strengthen the abilities of students who struggle with writing; Adora Olise, who serves as president of the Black Student Union and helped to facilitate the Hair Care Fair several years ago; and Grady Gobeil, a brother in Sigma Phi Epsilon who has worked within his fraternity to improve conversations around men’s mental health.
Funding Requests
Club Men’s Hockey requested $8,500.00 for hotels in order to facilitate attendance at the national tournament in their sport for the first time. The Society of Women Engineers asked for $3,300.00 to attend the annual National Society of Engineers conference, this year being held in Columbus, Ohio. The Muslim Student’s Association was granted $2,620.00 to host an iftar (evening fast-breaking) meal for Muslim students during the ongoing holy month of Ramadan.
Club Women’s Rugby, Club Women’s Lacrosse, and Club Alpine Ski were given $2,000.00, $1,156.55 and $2,313.09, respectively, from their remaining tier funding allotments.
Executive Reports
President Keegan Tripp responded to the recent editorial in the Maine Campus criticizing UMSG’s decision to raise their own wages without advocating for a raise in student employee wages, saying that he appreciated the criticism and would be looking at ways to better explain Senate decisions to the public in the future.
Vice President of Financial Affairs Joshua Bohm reported that $97,699.40 remained unallocated out of UMSG’s annual budget.
Vice President of Student Entertainment Dillon Leeman said that UMSG would soon announce the headliner for its upcoming spring concert. Since the meeting, the artist has now been revealed to be indie pop group The Driver Era, with the band Almost Monday serving as the opener.
Committee and Representative Reports
Senator Hailey Inman, who serves as the UMaine Security Representative, said that the UMaine Police Department is planning to install a more robust camera system in highly-trafficked areas such as the perimeters of Fogler Library and Alfond Stadium.
She also reported that UMPD committed to reinstating the blue light security system on campus over the summer, contrary to publicly shared information at a Sept. 30, 2025 UMSG meeting that the blue lights might be phased out. Inman said UMPD is working to reconfigure the road system for better ease of travel by next fall.
New Business
This meeting saw four resolutions considered in front of the Senate. A bill to mandate semesterly compliance checks on lockers belonging to student organizations in the Wade Center was passed, as the legislation that established student locker access did not require UMSG to supervise the spaces.
A resolution to align UMSG documents with standard practices regarding executive evaluations, which is a private Senate process of internal review that takes place each semester, was also passed. Two additional functional resolutions, one which updated job descriptions for the Representative to the Board of Trustees and Clerk roles, and another which modified the UMSG Committee bylaws to include the erroneously excluded Security Representative role, received approval from the Senate.
