At their meeting Tuesday, Central Student Government addressed progress on a range of both long-term issues, like course evaluations, and new ones, such as resource guide for undocumented students.
Executive Communications
During his executive communications, CSG President Cooper Charlton, an LSA senior, said the body is working with faculty on moving forward to release course evaluations to students.
“There is progress being made on course evaluations,” Charlton said. “I’m very pleased with our collaboration with faculty, specifically SACUA. Our representatives are fighting hard for student rights behind closed doors.”
The release of course evaluations has been a hot topic for the assembly since this fall. After an initial move by the University to release the evaluations in October, faculty governance expressed significant concern about the impact of it, ultimately voting to block the release later that month. Before the vote took place, University Provost Martha Pollack said she would be willing to slow down the release process if faculty continued to be opposed to it.
Since then, Charlton said CSG has been working with the administration and the Faculty Senate to let students have access to course evaluation data.
During his remarks, Charlton also praised the fact the University Athletic Department said the prices for football season tickets for Fall 2016 will not increase from the previous season.
“I’m excited to see the athletic department’s commitment to students,” he said. “Specifically around student ticket prices. The prices will not increase from last year, which is a very strong victory for students.”
The executive committee also updated the assembly on its request for an advisory committee to preside over elections to make sure everything goes according to code as CSG’s elections draw nearer.
CSG counsel Jacob Pearlman, Public Policy sophomore, said that he had hired third-year law student Nick Loukides as the body’s assistant student general counsel to help enforce the election code. According to Pearlman, the position’s task is to file complaints to the University Elections Commission for violations to the election code.
The position holder will be responsible for representing CSG in election violation, and will write amicus briefs, which the body is defining as reports that will be generated for each party detailing the party’s perspective on other election disputes.
The position is new this year, and pays $18 an hour.
Resolutions
CSG voted to support the creation of an “Undocumented Student Resource Guide,” an online database to serve undocumented students and to provide access to information regarding legal and financial resources on and off campus.
According to the resolution, the responsibility for the maintenance of the guide would either fall under the duties of Campus Inclusion Commission chair or to someone else to be appointed to the body at a later date.
Another resolution passed Tuesday night to partner with the Office of Greek Life for a diversity, equity and inclusion symposium to take place on March 28. The resolution states that CSG will co-sponsor the symposium and host Jasmine Rand — the attorney who represented the Trayvon Martin’s family — to speak on the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion on college campuses.
Confirmations
Four LSA representatives were confirmed to the assembly’s legislative branch at Tuesday’s meeting. Freshman Michael Sacchetti, freshman Allison Tuohy, sophomore Dylan Bennett and sophomore Craig Motola were all officially added to the assembly.