The University of Michigan’s Central Student Government met in a hybrid format Tuesday evening to discuss resolutions including funding for the United Student Government of Michigan Conference and creating a centralized platform for students’ surveys.
The resolution to help fund the United Student Government of Michigan Conference was amended to provide $10,000 for the event, down from the previously discussed total of $13,952.91. These funds will now be drawn from the General Reserve, which is used for emergency expenses, instead of the broader Legislative Discretionary Fund. The conference, lasting Feb. 18–19, will bring together members of student governments representing all 15 public universities in Michigan, including all three campuses of the University of Michigan, to debate resolutions and address student issues.
The resolution passed 17-1 with three assembly members abstaining.
Levi Todd, president of the University of Michigan-Flint Student Government, thanked the assembly for passing the resolution and urged the members to attend the conference.
“All of the great resolutions that you guys are working on, let’s bring that to the United Legislative Session, and let’s get it ratified across the state of Michigan,” Todd said.
The assembly also unanimously passed a resolution intended to address the currently unorganized distribution of student surveys for class assignments by creating a centralized system for students to submit their surveys. This resolution allows CSG to distribute the forms via email to make these surveys more accessible to the student body. Under the new system, students will be able to submit their surveys to CSG using a Google Form. CSG would then send out these surveys in monthly campus-wide emails. The resolution allocates a total of $2,750 to be used as monetary incentives for completing surveys.
Engineering sophomore Maria Liberty Fields introduced a social media campaign for Black History month, where all assembly members will be required to highlight influential Black figures in American history on their Instagram pages throughout February. Each assembly member will be expected to share five facts and a picture about a Black person of their choosing.
“Black people have contributed to a lot (of) American history, and American history is Black history,” Fields said. “So I think this is a really great way to get exposure, to actually see that that’s true.”
Many assembly members expressed their enthusiasm for the initiative. LSA sophomore Karthik Pasupula said it would be a good use of CSG’s large platform.
“I think it’s a really great initiative and something that CSG can do to use its platform for good,” Pasupula said.
The assembly unanimously passed a resolution condemning a University policy requiring current employees to report felony charges and convictions. Another resolution, which called on the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents to prioritize compliance with the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality’s recommendations in their search for the next University president, was referred to committee by unanimous consent.
Three confirmations passed unanimously, with LSA freshman Mario Thaqi confirmed as a member of the Executive Nominations Committee, LSA Student Government President Tyler Watt, an LSA senior, confirmed as Deputy Commissioner for Operations and LSA freshman Taylor Quick confirmed as Elections Director.
Daily staff reporter Eli Friedman can be reached at elisf@umich.edu.