Greetings UMBC Student Body,
We, the Senate of the UMBC Student Government Association, believe that it is our responsibility to maintain transparency and communication, upholding our oath to promote and defend the interests and well-being of UMBC’s undergraduate students.
It has come to our attention that a petition to impeach SGA President Anthony Jankoski and SGA Executive Vice President Daniel Amsini has been circulated. It has also come to our attention that this petition has been signed by over 600 undergraduate students. The Senate acknowledges each student's right to petition and to voice concerns to the SGA as stated in Article 6.3 of the SGA Constitution.
Article 5.6.5 of the SGA Constitution (available on our website: http://sga.umbc.edu) states that “a petition for impeachment signed by at least 5% of all UMBC undergraduates; in which case the Senate shall conduct a trial of the accused, and can remove the accused by a 2/3 vote of Senators present at a meeting.” According to the UMBC’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the number of enrolled undergraduate students in the Spring 2015 semester was 10,598; therefore, this petition requires 529.9 (rounded to 530) to meet the requisite 5% of the student body.
In accordance with the aforementioned Article, as well as Article 8 of the SGA Bylaws (also available on our website), the SGA President is responsible for forwarding the petition to the Speaker of the Senate within 5 days of officially receiving the petition. Additionally, an officer against whom an impeachment has been initiated is entitled to be notified within 5 business days of the passage of the charges and disclosure of the evidence supporting impeachment, as well as at least 10 business days after passage of the charges in which to prepare a defense before trial. At the time of this statement's release, the Senate has not officially received the petition.
Given this information, the Senate has come across critical barriers to proceeding with an impeachment trial. The Senate has not had the opportunity to elect a Speaker and Assistant Speaker, as this is the first order of business at our first meeting of the Fall semester. The roles of Summer Speaker and Assistant Summer Speaker, held by Andres Garcia and Sarah Lilly respectively, are informal in nature. In order for a Speaker to be elected before our first meeting of the Fall, a special meeting would have to be called.
The Senate has determined that a special meeting would be unethical, as a few Senators living outside of the area are unable to attend such a meeting and contribute their input in an impeachment trial. Additionally, the Senate Procedural Rules prohibit voting by proxy. It is our desire that each member has an equal opportunity to hear others, to speak their concerns, and to vote; therefore, we have chosen to postpone official impeachment proceedings until our first regular meeting of the Fall 2015 semester on Monday, August 31, after electing a Speaker and Assistant Speaker.
In preparation for this meeting, the Senate has chosen who will serve as Trial Manager. Article 7 of the SGA Bylaws, which governs Impeachment Trial procedure, states that the Managers are to levy the charges against the accused and make arguments for those charges. A majority of the Senate has decided that the Manager position should be filled by a current Senator. Out of the two Senators who expressed interest, a majority has selected Senator Andres Garcia to fill the Manager position.
Some students have expressed concern about the perceived conflict of interest brought by appointing Garcia as manager, as he was a strong advocate for the Jankoski-Amsini campaign during the election. While we recognize that Senator Garcia has worked closely with their campaign previously, we place full confidence in his integrity. Senator Garcia will remain impartial and will relay all evidence that has any bearing on the outcome of the trial. Please know that Senator Garcia will not be exclusively collecting evidence, the Senate will be working together over the next few months to pursue and collect any evidence deemed important. The key will be for Andres and the rest of the Senate to go about these proceedings with an open mind, and to let the facts and hard evidence present itself.
We appreciate your support and patience at this time. We would like you to know that we appreciate any questions, comments, and concerns that you may have and encourage you to bring them to our attention via e-mail. We will do our best to respond to them promptly. We look forward to working with you to resolve this matter and to strengthening the work of the SGA over the next year.
Respectfully,
Your 2015-16 SGA Senate
Andres Garcia, Summer Speaker (andresg1@umbc.edu)
Sarah Lilly, Summer Assistant Speaker (slilly1@umbc.edu)
Vanessa Barksdale (vanbark1@umbc.edu)
Seth Benefield (sethbe1@umbc.edu)
William Rice (willia8@umbc.edu)
Augustus Williams (august2@umbc.edu)
Oladipupo Eke (eke1@umbc.edu)
Andrew Lopez (alopez2@umbc.edu)
Joshua Massey (joshua.massey@umbc.edu)
Brooke Perrin (aperrin1@umbc.edu)
Markya Reed (markya1@umbc.edu) ]]>|
A Message From: Team Retriever Treasure |
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Do you like to save money?
Do you have a lot of stuff to throw away at the end of the semester?
Want to save the planet?
Then you will be happy to know that Students for Environmental Awareness presents our 2015 Prove It! idea: Retriever Treasure.
During the move out season, UMBC students end up throwing away a significant amount of still usable items. This campus “thrift store” will allow all students (residents and commuters) to donate such items via easily accessible collection centers, ideally in the residence halls and the Commons. All of these items will be resold at a discounted price to UMBC students at a yard sale in the following fall. All the money earned from this will be use to keep the program going year after year.
Any items that are not sold will be donated to Goodwill. This is amazing opportunity to raise awareness about sustainability on campus. So please help support our school, our community, and our planet by voting YES for Retriever Treasure!
For more information please contact Lillie Cimmerer at wb14095@umbc.edu or the Prove It! Coordinator Emily Melluso at umbcproveit@gmail.com.
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A Message From: Team SOLARetriever |
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1) Please provide a brief summary of your proposal. We are campaigning to get solar tables on campus to allow students to charge their laptops and other mobile devices with 100% renewable energy.
In 2007, President Hrabowski signed the Presidents Climate Action Plan with the overall goal of making UMBC carbon neutral by 2075. As of spring 2015, UMBC is about 14% carbon neutral, with the aim of being 15% carbon neutral by the end of the year. We want to help give that final push to UMBC’s goal, while giving something new, exciting, and useful to the UMBC community. Currently 20% of UMBC’s energy comes from wind and solar sources, which is a great start, but we can do more to increase our renewable energy usage. Not many students know or even care about how much energy comes from renewable sources, as long as they have power when they need it. Our idea is to provide a source of energy via solar tables to show students how useful these renewable sources can be. The power generated from these tables will demonstrate the sustainability of an “off the grid” method to reducing our energy usage. The solar tables have up to four outlets and four USB ports for charging electronics. The outlets are powered by a battery which is charged by the solar panel canopy above the table. These solar tables will provide a visual personification of green initiative on campus by letting students directly benefit from green energy. Our long term goal is to generate interest and pave the way for bigger and better renewable energy projects in the future.
2) Why are you passionate about your idea? What motivates you to work toward your proposal? Our love for sustainability pushed us to spend long hours researching different solar tables and the optimal variations that would work best with our campus and its students. We want to push towards a carbon neutral campus and will do what we can to spread our green message around UMBC.
3) What pushed you to get involved with Prove It! ?
The idea started with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers solar team. We wanted to create a retrofit solar umbrella to add to the existing umbrellas outside on The Commons Terrace. After finding out that we would not be able to retrofit out design to the umbrellas due to various concerns expressed by Commons Operations. Working hard on that project really made us want to find a way to make it a reality so we started to work with Facilities Management, Res Life, and The Commons to see what we could do. They agreed to work with us because of our strong initial proposal for Prove It! and foresaw us doing well enough in the competition to put money on the line for our project.
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Academic Standards Advisory Committee (ASAC): Academic Affairs has a student representative that sits on UMBC’s ASAC, which is currently discussing course “withdrawals” and the institution’s repeat policies for courses. It is impossible to re-program PeopleSoft to prevent students from re-enrolling in courses multiple times because of financial constraints. Academic Affairs has suggested to the committee that an alert should be coded into the software that would result in a pop-up notifying students that they should refrain from taking a course for a third time.
Course Evaluation & Implementation Committee (CEIC): Academic Affairs has reported that the CEIC is currently discussing the implementation of electronic submissions for Student Course Evaluations.
Campus Climate Change Work Group: Academic Affairs has reported that the Campus Climate Change Work Group has approved the existence of “preferred names” on UMBC Student ID’s!
Ganesh’s Corner: Communications has been producing a video series throughout the semester on SGA President, Ganesh Mysore, as he discusses the major programs and initiatives currently underway within the organization! Check them out on the SGA Facebook page!
This Is UMBC SGA: Communications has released an official trailer for another video series, which will display the inner workings and responsibilities of the various departments and student leadership within SGA.
Diversity Video: If you haven’t seen it already, make sure to visit the SGA Facebook page to check out the Department of Diversity & Multicultural Affairs’ Diversity Video initiative!
Diversity Tapestry: For their next project, DMCA wants to create a “Diversity Tapestry” for UMBC students to express their identity and sense of self through writing and drawing! Upon completion, the tapestry would be displayed in The Commons for the entire school to see!
Tuition Affordability Letter Writing Campaign: The student-written letters from last month’s campaign were stamped, addressed, and mailed out to the State Senate Office Buildings last week! The Department of Governmental & Institutional Affairs would once again like to thank all the students who came out to voice their concerns to their State Delegates and Senators!
Fitness Ambassador Program: Health & Wellness has accepted their first class of Fitness Ambassadors for their Pilot Program! Congratulations to UMBC Students: Karli Funk, Chloe Jackson, Thomas Liu, Dylan Ray, and Steven Snyder!
Emergency Preparedness: With the help of Commonvision, Health & Wellness plans to create informational brochures highlighting AED locations throughout campus, in addition to including other important facts, such as basic AED & CPR instructions and tips on how to recognize a stroke or heart attack. Health & Wellness hopes to have completed this project by May 1st!
Mental Health: In collaboration with NAMI and Active Minds, Health & Wellness is planning on launching their “Stick It To Stigma” campaign around the last 3 weeks of April, which will comprise of mental health screenings and surveys, movies, info sessions, and other interesting events! Additionally, Health & Wellness is gearing up for the semesterly Stress Free Zone to be executed in May around Finals Week!
ProveIt! Landmark Project: Leadership Development is currently in the process of choosing between 4 different vendors in purchasing the “paws” that will commemorate past ProveIt! initiatives, which are being designed in collaboration with Commonvision.
Red Card Program: Allows UMBC students to get discounts and deals at various local businesses by showing your student ID!
Blood Drive: Service & Community Outreach is currently preparing to host a campus blood drive that would be held all day in the UC Ballroom. The exact date and times are TBD, so be on the lookout for more details on Facebook and flyers around campus!
Card Reader System to help Student Orgs’ Fundraising Efforts
UMBC Athletics & School Spirit: The UMBC Men’s Lacrosse Game was a huge success, with a total attendance of 712 students, of which 108 were representing student organizations and clubs! Congratulations to the orgs/clubs with the highest attendance: Men’s & Women’s Ultimate Frisbee, Men’s Club Rugby, Global Brigades, Women’s Club Lacrosse, and UMBC Crew.
LeadingOrgs: SOS is currently planning their end of the year celebration for student organizations!
SGA Website: VPSO, Michael Burgos, is in discussion with faculty and student leadership regarding the utilization of the SGA website as the primary forum for student org resources and information.
Please help us congratulate our newest and first ever Fitness Ambassadors!
Steven Snyder
Dylan Ray
Chloe Jackson
Karli Funk
Thomas Liu
UMBC students please look out for a survey that will be up by tonight which will give you a chance to work with a Fitness Ambassador for the Pilot Program! Please note that for the Pilot Program we will only be selecting a few students to test out the program!
It is our hope that the Program will fully launch in Fall 2015 in a much larger capacity!
Are you interested in making a difference on campus? SGA Senate, Finance Board, and Exec departments have openings to help YOU make that happen!
Senate: