The Undergraduate Senate (UGS) unanimously passed bills to confirm a new member to the Constitutional Council, five members to the Board on Conduct Affairs and seven Office of Community Standards (OCS) student panelists at their Wednesday meeting.
The “Joint Bill to Confirm a Member to the Constitutional Council,” which had already been approved by the GSC after the UGS introduced it last week, confirmed Fiona Clunan ’24 J.D. ’28 to the judicial council. The two other bills were introduced and passed Wednesday and confirmed five returning members to the Board on Conduct Affairs and seven returning OCS student panelists.
“They have the training, familiarity and institutional knowledge to continue this work,” UGS Chair David Sengthay ’26 said.
However, appointing the members to their former positions requires the joint confirmation of both the UGS and the GSC. The GSC will vote on the two new bills in its weekly meeting Thursday.
Additionally, chair of housing and dining Kyle Hon Chan ’28 and deputy chair Princess Ochweri ’27, two UGS senators, presented their findings from their first monthly meeting with Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) officials David Ward, Eric Montell and Jocelyn Breeland.
According to the presentation, R&DE shut down Casper Dining for breakfast and brunch this year due to budget cuts that forced it to maintain meal plan prices by downsizing staff and operations.
“Every time you scan into the dining hall, that’s a data point for the dining hall,” Chan said. “Casper just had the least amount of swipes, and that’s why it was shut down.”
Chan also said it is unlikely R&DE will offer take out boxes in dining halls or expand the functionality of meal plan dollars in the near future.
“The main takeaway is that the budget is restricting a lot of innovation that could happen in R&DE right now, and the more flexible your meal plan dollars are, the more expensive your meal plan is,” Chan said.
The UGS also approved funding recommendations from the Appropriations Committee, which allocated over $101,000 in funding for student groups. UGS senator Celeste Vargas ’27, the chair of appropriations, also communicated two new guidelines for funding approval.
“Student groups should submit their funding requests approximately one month before their event date if possible,” Vargas said, adding that requests submitted seven days or less before their date will be automatically rejected.