The executive committee has issued the following report for the March 26, 2024 Assembly Meeting:
Notices to the Assembly:
Thank you to everyone who attended the Adaptive Sports event on Sunday! The turnout was great and we are looking forward to creating a policy report on the Adaptive Sports program following this event.
President Meera Herle and Vice President Bipasha Ray are in Washington, D.C. with the Association of Big Ten Students (ABTS) until Tuesday (3/26). While in D.C., Meera and Bipasha will be meeting with student government counterparts from across the Big Ten and with legislators from the state of Michigan.
The Regents Meeting is taking place this Thursday at 9:00 am (3/28). Meera Herle will be giving her last report as CSG President, and Intern to Vice President Lidia Cappelletti will speak about recreation funding and spaces. This is the last Regents meeting of the term, and the Executive team will be broadcasting the meeting in the CSG office–please join us to support fellow CSG members and learn how the university functions.
Upcoming Events: Women’s Leadership Luncheon (Pendleton Rm., 4/1), Big 10 on the Hill (3/24-3/26), Take Back the Night (4/3), Denim Day Painting (4/5), Healing Honestly Book Talk (4/9)
See a quick summary of all the great initiatives our team will be working on this year here!
Communications Activities:
Requests are open for CSG’s April All-Campus newsletter. Please direct those requests to this form and inquiries to our Director of Communications Andrew Ky.
The Communications team is working on captioning the next segment of CSG Chats on campus safety and medical amnesty. There is another segment of 13 questions with Meera and Bipasha coming soon as well. Keep an eye out!
The Communications team has created a wonderful branding guide as part of their initiative to develop a framework for communications activities. Check it out here! Otherwise, for any graphics requests, please fill out this form.
Programs and Events:
Meera and Bipasha, the Programming Board, and Policy Advisor for DEIJ Nneka Obiekwu are planning a Women’s Leadership Luncheon. This event will focus on appreciating female student leaders' work on campus, and we hope to incorporate a networking aspect with University leaders who are women. A Women’s History Month student spotlight will also be posted soon!
The Programming Team’s Operation Graduation gowns are nearly all picked up and emails regarding waitlists are being sent out early this week. This semester, we were able to provide 249 gowns, up from 80 gowns last semester. Chief Programming Officer Terra is also putting together information to make the return of all of the gowns smooth for front desk staff in May.
The Programming Team is additionally working on a research brief on the potential for CSG to facilitate a yard sale/end of winter semester exchange program in the future.
Policy Advisor for DEIJ Nneka Obiekwu is working with Dr. Tabbye Chavous, the Vice Provost for Equity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, and the rest of the ODEI team on an upcoming DEIJ Fireside Chat on next Monday, April 1st from 5:00-6:00pm in the Hussey Room of the League. The goal for this event is to collect feedback on the University’s initial rollout of its new DEI 2.0 initiatives.
The SMPSEC team and programming teams are putting on an upcoming event focused on sexual assault awareness, and will showcase resources and activities such as a communal art piece. Denim Day will be taking place on April 5 in the Diag at 1:00pm, and is in collaboration with art and performance groups on campus.
The SMPSEC team is additionally collaborating with SAPAC on a book talk about Healing Honestly, written by a Michigan alumnus. This will be taking place on April 9th from 6:30-9:00pm.
Policy Team:
Our SMPSEC team also has been working very closely with SAPAC to advocate for the addition of SMPSE resources in syllabi. They are also cosponsoring and collaborating for Take Back the Night on April 3, which is an annual event that focuses on LGBTQ+ activism and experiences.
Our Treasury team is meeting with Snackpass, Lineleap, Office Max, and Staples representatives soon to discuss potential UM student discounts. They are following back up with LinkedIn following their meeting recently. Updates to follow soon!
Vice President Bipasha Ray’s High-Risk Planning (HRP) Student Sub-Committee met with stakeholders in FSL to push for further access to nightcaps and test strips in strategic areas to promote and normalize personal safety right before the break. They attended IFC & Panhel leadership meetings last week to plan for the creation of a nightcap pilot program. They met with Brown Jug and Blue Leprechaun last week to discuss the program’s logistics. Members of the HRP group are also working with a marketing company that has offered to help pro bono with the creation of a marketing plan for this project.
Emily’s intern, Katie Rose, is also working on the Accessibility portion of CSG’s Resource Guide as well as the University’s financial resources document, updating resources and reformatting it to make it more digestible for students. This should be finalized this week.
Policy Advisor on Mental Health and Wellness Aditi Vijendra is researching two current CSG initiatives. The first is looking into strategies to boost engagement with our Calm app program, and the second is a comprehensive report for SMPSEC on the new wellness vending machine put into the Union in January.
Policy Advisor on Sustainability Brandon Cooper is working with MDining and the Humane Society to advocate for increasing vegan and vegetarian dining hall options to 55% or more. Brandon will also be serving as the CSG representative on the food advisory committee for sustainable food on campus. He met with Keith Soster, MDining’s Director of Student Engagement to discuss food insecurity on campus as well as set a goal of having 67% sustainable food options. He has also connected with SCANN, the Student Carbon Neutrality Network on creating an orientation education model for sustainability.
Brandon is also in the process of getting donation boxes stationed in front of university buildings with high foot traffic for an upcoming plastic bag drive. There will be boxes in the Union, Pierpont, Maize and Blue Cupboard, and Winter Garden in Ross, and he is in contact with residence halls as well. The drive is happening through March 29th. More updates soon!
Policy Director Gwen Tatara is working with Beyond the Diag to refresh their off-campus housing guide. BTD is a U-M program developed to provide resources to students living off campus. She’s going through the responses to her housing survey, as well as comparing it with data from last year and using this to create graphic analysis and Landlord Report Cards. A draft of this housing guide introduction has been completed to send to the BTD Program Manager, Mark Simmonds. This report card should be done soon. She and her intern Erin Snyder also had a meeting with Rayne Wolfe from RHA on Thursday to discuss student laundry finances and advocate for affordability considering external costs such as detergent, mechanics of vouchers, and supply distribution.
The Government Relations and Policy teams created one-pagers on the congressional RISE Act and Farm Bill which informed our meetings during Big 10 on the Hill. Director of Government Relations Akhila Mullapudi is also working with representatives from Dearborn and Flint student governments to investigate tri-campus transportation.
If you have any questions or would like to meet with the President or Vice President, please contact Chief of
Staff to the President Juliette Quenioux (julietq@umich.edu)