During the first Clemson Undergraduate Student Government weekly kick-off meeting on Monday night, upcoming housing changes, an update to the Clemson non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy and new senate legislation was discussed.
The first announcement made was by Senator A.J. Ilardi, which was an introduction to the CUSG board — where Salena Robinson, CUSG programming director; Luke Hall, vice presidential chief of staff; Clark Reboul, CUSG programming director; and Santiago Mejia-Tejada, CUSG programming director, were introduced to the senate.
Following all new introductions, a bill of new business was brought to the floor regarding CUSG handbook and procedure updates, which regards the idea that all legislation must be read twice to improve legislation accuracy and student involvement. The bill is meant to update senate procedures to the current senate body, but was then moved back to committee for further analysis.
Committee reports were also announced, with an update to the University’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy. It has been updated to include gender identity to the list of protected groups on-campus. It has been published on the Clemson University official website.
Housing also gave an update with trying a new approach to resident service desks this semester. Instead of each residence hall having a desk with limited hours, there is now only one desk for each side of campus. These desks will be open 24 hours a day, with the East area desk located at Mauldin Hall, and the West area desk located at DesChamps Hall. If locked out, students will go to their designated area desk to retrieve their temporary key. The senate is planning to advocate for a third area desk on-campus going forward. More information and updates will be discussed soon.
“The meeting was very procedural in order to set a good tone and pace for senate in this new semester. Though much of the legislation was standardized and the reports very dense, the meeting gave the committees a chance to update the body of their progress over the long summer recess and their tentative plans for the remainder of the term,” commented senate president, Thomas Newell.
The senate is also looking to welcome five freshmen to join the senate this fall. The senate is encouraging other students to run for senate in the spring as well. Currently, CUSG only has five open seats reserved for freshmen, like in the past, they had senators not return to the body after summer break, so there are now additional interview spots for upperclassmen.
