The executive committee has issued the following report for the February 20, 2024 Assembly Meeting:
Notices to the Assembly:
Thank you to everyone in Assembly who made our events last week a success! We engaged over 665 students between our Self-Care and Stuff-A-Bear and Hearts & Crafts events last week. We were able to connect students with mental health resources and student organizations including WSN and WORTH and help students create a voting plan for the upcoming primary elections!
We also finished out our subsidized headshot program yesterday–we were able to offer free professional headshots to 360 students this semester! Chief of Staff Jules Quenioux is working on sending those out to students this week.
Upcoming Events: Take Your Professor to Lunch, Operation Graduation, Black History Month programming, Subsidized Professional Headshots (Week of 2/12, 2/19), Go Blue Goes Green (2210 ABC, 3/9 & 3/10)
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 March 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 a new video segment, the first of which will be “13 Questions with Student General Counsel Tyler Watt!”
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:
Policy Advisor on Mental Health and Wellness Aditi Vijendra is heading up the distribution of 2000 Calm app subscriptions for students. Students were notified last week with instructions on how to redeem their subscriptions!
Policy Advisor on DEIJ Nneka Obiekwu has connected with MESA–we are co-sponsoring their Black History Month programming. This year, the theme is “Empowering Generations: Past, Present, and Future,” with a focus on Black creativity and expression.
Nneka is also working on creating a social media highlight for Black student leaders on campus–we are looking for more responses, so please share it around! She also met with U-M Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion Tabbye Chavous last Friday regarding DEI 2.0 and information sharing with the student body.
The Programming team is working on a reiteration of our popular Go Blue Goes Green event, our free campus thrift store. This will be taking place on Saturday, March 9 from 10:00am-6:00pm and Sunday, March 10 from 10:00am-4:00pm in Room 2210 ABC of the Union. We are working on expanding the reach of the program, and have connected with apartment complexes, RHA, and Panhel. Collection boxes have been placed all around campus, and we will be accepting donations until February 22 in the dorms and Unions.
Operation Graduation is up and running again this semester! Through this program, students have the opportunity to receive free graduation gowns, which will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. This semester, we are rethinking the operations of this program–we will be doing a free “rental” system to bolster the re-use of the gowns and build up a running inventory of gowns for semester-over-semester use. Students who receive a free gown will be required to return it to CSG after graduation.
Take Your Professor/GSI to Lunch started last week! This program provides vouchers for free lunch for a group of up to four students and at least one professor or GSI. This semester, we are offering 60 lunches. Our programming intern, Max Stefanski, has been working with members of the University Union staff to make this program smoother for participating students and CSG staff alike.
Policy Team:
Our SMPSEC team has been working very closely with SAPAC, UM’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, to advocate for the addition of SMPSE resources in syllabi as well as collaboration for upcoming spring events. They are also helping to support SAPAC’s programming efforts for Healthy Relationships Month. SAPAC will also be coming to the Executive Committee meeting on March 6th to give a workshop that will present a comprehensive overview of the services and resources offered to survivors and their allies. If you are interested in coming, please let Jules know! We’d love to have Assembly members present.
SMPSEC has also been working on programming–specifically collaborating with SAPAC on their upcoming rEVOLUTION: Healing Through the Arts event in April, which promotes healing, visibility, and awareness of sexual and relationship violence. CSG will also be co-sponsoring a book talk event in April– more details to come!
Vice President Bipasha Ray’s High-Risk Planning 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 are attending FSL & Panhel leadership meetings in the next few weeks to plan for the creation of a nightcap pilot program, and are researching the best ways to advocate for the creation of a city ordinance for the bar portion of the program.
Policy Advisor for Affordability and Accessibility Emily Ryan is working with the Director of Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services (SAAS) to see how CSG can uplift the Adaptive Sports program. They are also connecting with SAAS’s Accessibility research coordinator to use existing data to write a policy report on the program’s current needs.
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.
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 met with MDining leadership about including more non-meat options in the dining halls. He is preparing a report with recommendations for them coming out of that meeting. He is also working on planning a plastic bag drive and has connected with SCANN, the Student Carbon Neutrality Network on the creation of an orientation education model for sustainability.
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. To support her research on this topic, she has rolled out a survey about off-campus housing experiences that we also pushed in the December ACE. She’s going through the responses, as well as comparing it with data from last year, and using this to create graphic analysis and Landlord Report Cards.
Government Relations Director Akhila Mullapudi is connecting with Turn Up Turnout (TUT) for strategic planning around the upcoming primary election. She is also working with representatives from Dearborn and Flint student governments to investigate tri-campus transportation.
Policy Director Gwen Tatara, along with Bipasha Ray and intern Lidia Cappelletti, are waiting for Procurement to approve our agreement with UWorld, a partnership that will allow U-M students to receive discounted test prep materials and free consultations targeted at students pursuing graduate degrees. Our Princeton Review partnership has been officially approved and information will be shared via our Instagram shortly about how students can receive a discount on test prep services!
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)