Point of Information 9/18/2023

Welcome back to Senate! 

Thank you so much to all those who attended our informational meetings. We are so happy to be back in Senate (and to bring back our weekly POI)! For our newcomers... the Point of Information (POI) will serve as a meeting recap with any important links, meeting times, events, etc. 

Recap: Informational Meeting 

• As promised, our informational slide deck has been made accessible here. This has all of the info we went over and contacts to leadership! 

• Committees and Boards are starting! the schedule is below. Boards are closed; however, most have open positions and you can contact the chair if you would like to apply!

Announcements: 

• As promised APPLICATIONS are due a week from today (Tuesday, September 26th). Don't forget to collect your signatures. You can find more information and check on your application status here. Reach out to Chief of Staff Sawyers (sawyers.s@northeastern.edu) with any application questions.

• The holistic wellness working group is looking for some more members representing CIE and the cultural centers. If you're interested please reach out to ciummo.f@northeastern.edu!

This Week in Senate: April 19, 2021

On Monday 4/19, the Northeastern Undergraduate Senate convened for its final meeting of the 2020-21 academic year. To begin, the Senate heard from Dr. Christine Civiletto, the Interim Director of UHCS, about the ongoing services UHCS has been providing to students. In particular, she highlighted the Find@Northeastern support line available to all full time students anywhere in the world. This line connects callers to a licensed clinician and can then be referred to a clinician in their area (and they get up to 10 free visits per academic year). Following her presentation, Dr. Civiletto made herself available for questions. Questions raised covered availability of in-person care internationally, the wait times for mental health care referral services, UHCS’s plan to accommodate the anticipated incoming bulge class, Northeastern’s (low) student:clinician ratio, plans to improve cultural competency within UHCS, plans to work with cultural centers on campus, problems working with the Disability Resource Center (DRC), and whether UHCS plans on adding new Orientation material concerning mental health (as outlined in the referendum question passed).

Following a slew of emotional leadership addresses, the Senate moved into 2021-2022 Leadership Confirmations. Each nominee was given 5 minutes to talk before moving into Q&A, followed by an Executive Session for debate. Voting was then done via secret ballot. By this process, the following nominees were confirmed:

• Sergeant-At-Arms: Jacob Hochadel

• Parliamentarian: Nicole Miranda

• Executive Director of Communications: Rhea Tipnis

• Executive Director of Events: Gabby Barker

• Chief of Staff: Abigail Sodergren

• Director of Information Management: Billy Opet

Following these confirmations, legislation SS-SP-21-117 was presented and debated. This piece of legislation calls on Northeastern to purchase solar-powered seating options on campus so that students can sustainably charge their devices while being outdoors. As per usual, the authors were given 10 minutes to present and for Q&A. The SGA bylaws were then suspended to allow for the legislation to be voted on during the meeting (since it was the last meeting of the semester). The legislation was passed by unanimous consent. 

The remainder of the meeting was spent presenting four different awards: Senator of the Month (March), Senator of the Semester, the Gail Olytha Faculty Support Award, and the Gerald H. Herman Service and Dedication Award. These were awarded to:

• Senator of the Month (March): Shriya Thangada

• Senators of the Semester: Deeraj Mirpuri, Matthew Coleman

• Gail Olytha Faculty Support Award: Dean Bob Jose

• Gerald H. Herman Service and Dedication Award: Keiler Dunbar

This final meeting of the 2020-2021 Academic Year was adjourned at 11:44 PM.

This Week in Senate: April 5, 2021

On Monday, April 5 the SGA reconvened for a full body Senate. Senate began with Executive Addresses and continued with explanations from EVP Opet that regarding the evening’s legislation, the Senators would be voting to suspend Article V Section C of the Bylaws, which allows the Senate to debate and vote on a piece of legislation during the same meeting that the legislation is introduced. 

First, the Senate had Q&A and executive debate sessions with two presidential nominees for Boston Intercollegiate Government (BIG) Liaison, Kate Kuznetsova and Chapin Alf. Questions for the candidates covered plans for growing the organization’s membership, collaboration with other schools, and committee membership and experience. After a secret ballot vote, both nominees were confirmed to the role of BIG Liaison for the 2021-2022 academic year. 

Next, the Senate reviewed legislation IR-SP-21-113. This Internal Resolution would establish project leads to work on the restructuring of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts within the Association, establish a standing committee for DEI for the 2021-2022 school year, and make the position of Executive Director of DEI defunct. While the project leads are collaborating to establish a permanent mechanism for DEI work within SGA, the standing committee will exist temporarily to ensure that advocacy continues in the fall. Next academic year, when the project leads have reached a consensus as to the best structure for DEI work, the project leads will bring forth legislation to include the new system in the governing documents. The Senate then voted to suspend the bylaws, held debate, and passed IR-SP-21-113 by unanimous consent. 

RG-SP-21-114 was presented next. This Resolution of Governance would remove engagement requirements for Senators. Engagement requirements are 2 hours Senators must spend each week engaging with their constituents through advocacy work, most commonly through SGA committee work. The authors cited engagement requirements being an inaccurate reflection of Senators’ engagement and the additional responsibilities of special interest Senators as justification for the legislation. In debate, Senators were largely supportive of the legislation, as it would allow them to work on projects they are truly passionate about. RG-SP-21-114 passed by unanimous consent. 

Next, RG-SP-21-115 was presented, a Resolution of Governance that would make a number of small updates to the governing documents, including adding the role of subcommittees, clarifying language about the voting rights of leadership members, and changing the standing procedures to create a formal method for calling an emergency recess. After a short Q&A with the authors and debate, RG-SP-21-115 passed by unanimous consent.

Finally, RG-SP-21-116 was introduced. This Resolution of Governance would restructure the Sustainability Board, dividing it into the Green Initiatives Board and the Sustainability Subcommittee. The Green Initiatives Board would manage the Renewable Energy Fund, and the Sustainability Subcommittee would complete sustainability advocacy projects. Following Q&A and debate, the Senate passed the final piece of legislation by unanimous consent. 

The Senate will reconvene on April 19 for a full body Senate. 

This Week in Senate: March 29, 2021

On Monday, March 29, 2021 the Northeastern Undergraduate Senate met for a full-body meeting, beginning with the announcement of an anonymous Senate Mental Health form for meetings. This form will allow students to call for a recess in the event that they would like to pause the meeting given that the Senate is often responsible for discussing difficult conversations. In the form, there can be a request to change the course of conversation or even provide feedback without calling for a recess. Additionally, the last two full-body meetings of the semester will take place 4/5 and 4/19. There will be no meeting 4/12 due to the academic holiday.

A recess in the meeting was called in order to have a discussion about the EDoDEI position without the constraints of Robert’s Rules. The purpose of this conversation was to figure out what senators felt the position was supposed to achieve and what support systems can be put in place to make such goals possible. This dialogue was very productive and brought up important points that will be taken into account as SGA works to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the future. Following this conversation, the meeting was resumed.

The next portion of the meeting was Internal Elections. For each position, candidates were listed. Each candidate was allowed to give a speech, required to partake in a question and answer period, and then asked to leave the meeting for debate and voting. Debates were held in an Executive Session, and votes were cast by secret ballot. The following individuals were elected:

• Comptroller: Syaad Khan

• VP for Academic Affairs: Alexander Arenas

• VP for Student Affairs: Emily Perez

• VP for Student Involvement: Robbie Neumann

• VP for Student Services: Sebastian Chávez

• VP for Sustainability: Zach Greenwald

• Elections Chair: Sam Chaturvedi

The meeting was then adjourned at 10:53 pm. The next Senate meeting will be held on April 5th at 7pm on Zoom.

Northeastern Student Government Association 2021 Direct Elections Results

Following a week of voting, results for the Student Government Association’s Direct Elections have been announced. A total of 4612 students participated in this year’s election, which is 24% of the full-time undergraduate community. The results are: 

• 3430 — Power to the Pack slate

• 590 — No Confidence

• 592 — Abstentions

Out of these results, the Power to the Pack slate received 85.5% and No Confidence received 14.5% of the eligible votes (not including abstentions). 

As per the Association’s bylaws, President-Elect Casey Buttke and Executive Vice-President-Elect Isabella Galinkin shall begin serving their term at the beginning of the Summer 2 session and until the end of the following Summer I session.

There were five referenda questions presented on the ballot. Here is the break down of each with percentages (not including abstentions).

Question 1: Should the Northeastern administration work with the MBTA to reduce public transportation fares to the MBTA Reduced Fare rate (at least 50% reduction) for all Northeastern University students? (Passed with 97% approval)

• 4346 — Yes

• 112 — No

• 154 — Abstain

Question 2: Should the Office of Student Orientation and Family Programs create specialized orientation programming dedicated to promoting overall student mental wellbeing and educating students on the mental health resources available to them, both on and off-campus? (Passed with 95% approval)

• 3983 — Yes

• 221 — No

• 408 — Abstain

Question 3: Should Northeastern University allow students to pay tuition at the per-credit hour rate without the need to Petition for Reduced Load? (Passed with 96% approval)

• 4004 — Yes

• 152 — No

• 456 — Abstain

Question 4: Should the Northeastern University Administration increase UHCS’s mental health funding to hire more clinicians representative of demographics of the Northeastern student body to reflect the needs of the student population? (Passed with 94% approval)

• 3970 — Yes

• 245 — No

• 397 — Abstain

Question 5: Should Northeastern University adopt a 3 meal-per-day plan at a semesterly rate at least 24% less than the current 17 meal-per-week plan? (Passed with 96% approval)

• 3988 — Yes

• 173 — No

• 451 — Abstain

Thank you so much to all who voted this year! We encountered quite a few technical glitches as we moved to the new Student Hub platform, and we will continue working on these bugs and issues with ITS for next year.

This Week in Senate: March 22, 2021

This week, the Senate reconvened for a full-body meeting on Monday, March 22. The Senators received a special address from Maureen Timmons, Director of Dining Services.  She shared with the Senate the “then, now, & next” of dining throughout the pandemic, explaining the process of shutting down campus last spring, and changes they made last fall. Notably, Director Timmons mentioned that next year’s freshman class will be a “bulge” class, meaning it will include 1-2,000 additional students.  Because of the expected increase in the meal plan-using population, Dining Services is working to develop alternatives to dining halls, such as food lockers and meal kits.  Senators asked questions about the recent change to the meal exchange program, food waste and sustainability, and food insecurity on campus.  Director Timmons reiterated that, while unpopular, the recent change in dining plans is an effort for campus to return to pre-COVID-19 practices. 

The first item of new business was for Elections Chair Chaturvedi to announce the Student Body Elections results. The uncontested slate for President and Executive Vice President, Power to the Pack, was elected with 85% of non-abstaining votes.  Casey Buttke will be the next Student Body President, and Izzy Galinkin will be next year’s Executive Vice President.  Additionally, all five referenda questions were passed with over 94% support.   Next, the Senate received media training from EDoC Nivar to clarify expectations for Senators’ relationship with the media, whether it be student/local journalism, or behavior online in general. 

The final order of business was to nominate candidates for internal elections. These positions include the five Vice Presidents, Comptroller, and Elections Chair.  The following students were nominated for these positions: 

• Comptroller: Syaad Khan

• VP of Academic Affairs: Senator Alex Arenas

• VP of Student Affairs: Senator Emily Perez

• VP of Student Involvement: Senator Robbie Nuemann

• VP of Student Services: VP Sebastian Chávez

• VP of Sustainability: Senator Zach Greenwald

• Elections Chair: Elections Chair Sam Chaturvedi 

VP Chávez and Elections Chair Chaturvedi were both nominated for a second term in the position they are currently serving.  Nominations are open through the remainder of the week.  Next Monday, March 29, the Senate will reconvene to debate and vote on each Candidate.

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.

This Week in Senate: March 8, 2021

Last Monday, March 8, the Student Government Association reconvened for a Full-body Senate. Mark Jannoni, Assistant Vice President for University Equity and Compliance & Title IX Coordinator, gave a special address to discuss Northeastern’s Title IX policy changes, updated to ensure compliance with new federal regulations. Federal law requires that Northeastern more strictly defines sexual assault, restricts allegations under the Title IX jurisdiction to those committed on campus property during educational programming, and change the formal resolution process by requiring a “live hearing” with cross-examinations, during which both the complainant and respondent must participate. To account for the shortcomings of the new federal regulations, Title IX has created an additional policy on Sexual & Gender Based Harassment (SGBH). The SGBH policy has jurisdiction over allegations taking place off campus and/or outside of educational programming. The procedure for SGBH cases mirrors that of the old Title IX policy, with no live hearings or cross-examinations. 

After the Senate was called to order, members of leadership gave their addresses.  Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Arenas announced that the peer advising program is officially beginning a pilot process in DMSB. This program will allow students to connect with peers for advising matters. We are hoping it will be replicated in other colleges soon. VP of Student Services Chávez announced that ITS is currently rolling out a density tracker pilot program, and students should expect access to the service in about a month. Finally, Elections Chair Chaturvedi reminded everyone that the election season is underway, and voting will be open on the Student Hub between March 14-18th! On the ballot will be candidates for Student Body President and Executive Vice President, as well as 5 referenda questions. 

The Senate debated and voted on SS-SP-21-109, a Sense of the Senate calling for the establishment of a Northeastern-wide syllabi database that professors could opt into to make their syllabi available to all students. After a short debate, the legislation passed by unanimous consent. SS-SP-21-110, a Sense of the Senate calling for the reversal of changes made to financial aid advising was removed from the agenda through a motion, because after further discussion with the financial aid office, it was concluded that the piece of legislation was not going to be beneficial to the student body. 

SS-SP-21-111 was introduced, a Sense of the Senate calling on the University to make the usage of SAIL non-compulsory in classes. Inquiries brought up during question and answer time included the implementation strategy of the authors if the legislation passes, and concerns about feasibility given the amount of money Northeastern has spent on the platform. Debate and voting procedure on SS-SP-21-111 will take place at the next Senate on Monday, March 15. Finally, the Senate approved by unanimous consent the FY22 budget proposed by President Kuznetsova.

This Week in Senate: March 1, 2021

On March 1, 2021, the Northeastern Undergraduate Senate reached quorum for its weekly meeting at 7:08 PM. Guests Rich Davis and Michelle Rapp from the Office of Alumni Relations began the meeting with a presentation regarding the various programs and services available to undergraduates through the Office, including Husky Starter and NUSource. Further, they provided insight about incentives for givers on annual Giving Day and how they can help raise money for student groups on campus.

Following the presentation, announcements were presented to the Senate. 

• Executive Vice President Opet announced that nominations for internally elected leadership positions will be held March 22nd, and Internal Elections will occur on March 29th.

• The second announcement pertained to the recognition of sensitive topics addressed during Student Government meetings. In future discussion, all speakers will be asked to provide content warnings prior to speaking on potentially upsetting topics. 

• President Kuznetsova announced that the budget will be presented at the Full Body meeting next week, March 8th. 

• VP for Student Services Adewunmi declared that there will not be an Executive Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion for the remainder of this semester given the precedent set in prior confirmation hearings.

Two pieces of legislation were presented, SS-SP-21-109 and SS-SP-21-110. The authors of each piece of legislation were given 10 minutes to present and answer questions from the Senate (as normal). Below is a summary of the pieces of legislation. These summaries do not represent the opinions of the Senate concerning these bills. Both will be debated and voted on at the full body meeting next week.

• SS-SP-21-109 details the creation of a syllabi database for Northeastern University. This system would be optional, and professors would have the ability to opt-in and upload syllabi from their classes. 

• SS-SP-21-110 calls on Northeastern to return to the system where each student gets a specific financial advisor assigned to them. It has been reported to the Senate that response times for financial questions have increased after the adoption of this system. Additionally, having a specific advisor allows for students to have a more personalized experience.

Prior to the adjournment of the meeting, the association’s leadership team presented February’s two Senators of the Month: Harrison Voigt and Tim Sullivan. These senators were chosen for the exemplary work they have done across multiple committees, as well as for their thoughtful, important words expressed during Senate meetings.

The Senate’s next meeting will be on March 8th at 7 PM. This meeting will be a Full Body meeting (mandatory attendance for Senators).

This Week in Senate: February 22, 2021

On Monday, February 22, the Northeastern University Undergraduate Student Government Association Senate convened for its regular session. The meeting began with an address from Executive Director of Communications Nivar addressing the most recent HuntNews article published regarding the referendum debate. Moving forward, the association will continue working to make the referenda process more accessible to clubs on campus and to implement student projects. Further, media training will be provided to all association members in the near future to enable senators to confidently speak on behalf of their constituencies to the best of their abilities. 

Following these introductory remarks, a candidate for the role of Executive Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (EDoDEI) was presented for confirmation. As is standard for this type of confirmation, the candidate went through a question and answer session, before the Senate convened for an Executive Session. This session was used to weigh the merits of the candidate’s fit for the role of EDoDEI. It is standard practice to hold these debate periods under executive session to respect the candidate and foster genuine conversation (see Robert’s Rules of Order). Following discussion, a Secret Ballot vote was cast and the candidate was not confirmed. The Association appreciates the candidate’s willingness to serve in the capacity of EDoDEI and the time they have dedicated to SGA.

In the Association’s next meeting, Monday, March 1, there will be a review of legislation SS-SP-21-109.