This Week in Senate: March 15, 2021
On March 15, 2021, the Northeastern Undergraduate Senate convened for its weekly meeting. This meeting featured two guest speakers: University Chancellor Ken Henderson and Dean Bob Jose. The Chancellor discussed the administration’s recent announcements regarding campus life during the Spring and the plan for Fall 2021. He further requested that Senators speak with their constituents about the Climate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion survey and highlighted the recent hiring of a Chief Inclusion Officer at Northeastern. Following this presentation, senators were able to ask questions to the Chancellor, ranging from topics such as calmness days, to NUFlex to referenda initiatives.
Dean Jose also addressed the importance of the Northeastern Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Survey. This survey has not been done since 2008 and is a way for administration to identify student concerns. The anonymous survey is being conducted using a 3rd party (Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium) to allow Northeastern to compare the survey data to over 60 other schools across the country. The +20-question survey will be sent to students and remain open for 3-4 weeks, with data reporting out by the end of May/beginning of June. Dean Jose then requested ideas of how data should be conveyed to students, such as via email or News at Northeastern article. Question and answer time opened the discussion to how results will influence University future plans, which is dependent on the feedback received.
Leadership addressed then took place. Executive Vice President Opet announced that future Senate meetings will be held on Zoom instead of Microsoft Teams, hopefully allowing for more community-building interactions. Additionally, nominations for Internally Elected Positions are due the following week, with candidates needing to send in their candidate information sheets by 3/25. The next two Senate meetings (3/22 & 3/29) will be full body meetings. EDE Clapper reminded everyone that NU’s Got Talent will be happening 3/27, and Elections Chair Chaturvedi put in a reminder about voting in the general election via the Student Hub.
Two pieces of legislation were then discussed: SS-SP-21-111 and IR-SP-21-112. SS-SP-21-111 was presented the previous week and sought to not make SAIL mandatory for students to use. This was debated, with debate centering around the use of SAIL in classes such as co-op related classes versus other platforms. The bill was then brought to a roll call vote, the record of which can be found in the minutes for this meeting.
IR-SP-21-112 was presented and a question and answer period followed. This piece of legislation is an Internal Resolution, meaning it would only be valid (if passed), until June 2022. The bill adds the role of Boston Intercollegiate Government (BIG) Voting Representatives as appointed positions within SGA’s leadership team. Information gained from question and answer period include the following: the time committee is 3-5 hours per week with hours for BIG counting as engagement hours; membership in BIG or SGA are required prior to applying for this role to ensure that Northeastern’s BIG representatives have an understanding of both organizations they represent; voting representatives should be leadership members as to have access to cabinet in order to be cognizant of what occurs in all parts of the association. This resolution will be debated and voted on in the next full body meeting (3/22).
The meeting was adjourned at 9:01pm. The next meeting will be a full body meeting on 3/22 and 7pm on Zoom.
