Hi Jerome and welcome to the SGA Fall 2021 newsletter! We hope you had a great semester. Here's a recap of what we accomplished this semester in Student Government. Thank you in advance for closely reading this email and good luck on your finals! Have a great break and we'll see you next semester!
This semester SGA passed 19 bills and 1 resolution. These range from club recognitions to fund allocations to official positions meant to represent the student body to the UVM administration.
Livestream videos of Senate meetings are available on our Instagram.
Committee Reports
Committee on Student Action and Wellbeing
This semester, in partnership with CAPS, we worked to improve online access to appointment scheduling. This will be implemented in the Spring semester. Additionally, we worked with the different libraries and the Center for Health and Wellbeing to secure private telehealth ‘pods’ for students. CSAW is also working to get expanded outdoor seating options on campus beyond Adirondack chairs. There is also an ongoing project in partnership with the Director of Sustainability and Recycling/Zero-waste programs to write up an informal report on whether trash cans are beneficial or not to campus.
Club Affairs
Club Affairs has done great work this semester, including the recognition of 16 new organizations (a new record!) These clubs have been everything from the Waffle Making Club and Femmes in Forestry to Sports Analytics Club and the International Student Club. We also hosted the first-ever sexual violence prevention training for all ClubSigners and are hosting one again next semester. We look forward to continuing to work with clubs and students in the community!
Committee on Legislative and Community Affairs
The Committee on Legislative and Community Affairs hosted a hygiene drive on campus and donated the goods to the Committee on Temporary Shelter in Burlington. We also passed the resolution calling for the termination of the fall break student housing fees.
Public Relations
The Public Relations Committee had a successful semester. We brought back SGA2Yous and expanded our social media reach. We are looking forward to next semester and our projects that are carrying over include: updating the SGA website, hosting more outreach events, and hosting a larger public forum.
Senator Spotlights
This fall SGA welcomed 9 new senators! Congrats to Senators Riley O’Hagan, Sydney Daniels, Brooke Dietrich, Olivia Eisenberg, Annie Boudreau, Emma Ferguson, Taylor MacHarrie, Carter Purple, and Matthew Sorenson!
SGA went on our annual fall leadership retreat in early October! Special thanks to VP Olivija Stephens and Treasurer Zyakkiriah Rhoden for all their hard work.
Chair Maddie Henson recently received an anonymous donation to construct a statue to honor Indigenous contributions to the land before and after the inception of UVM. (Photo credits to Elaina Sepede)
SGA now has a Spotify account! Senators Brooke Dietrich and Riley O’Hagan are working to build playlists that represent all of SGA's committees with the goal of including more student input in the future.
