Undergraduate Student Government’s (USG) College Council (CC) voted against an act that would have expanded the ability to reserve student space to non-RSO student groups at its Monday meeting.
Student Center spaces, including classrooms in academic buildings and spaces in Ida Noyes Hall and Reynolds Club, are currently only reservable by RSOs and not by student groups not recognized by the University. The proposed motion would have allowed non-RSO student groups to apply to use USG’s RSO designation to reserve Student Center spaces.
CC members who voted against the act noted that USG would be responsible for any damage to Student Centers spaces caused by groups that reserved rooms through USG, opening up the risk of USG losing its RSO status and ability to reserve rooms for meetings.
The same motion was introduced in February of last academic year but was ultimately not passed. The same act may be submitted twice per quarter for voting purposes, but since this proposal was previously submitted, it must be “substantially and substantively different to be considered unique,” as determined by the CC Chair, according to the USG bylaws.
Three USG committees—the Student Advocates Office (SAO), the Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention committee (SAAP), and the Committee on Marginalized Student Affairs (COMSA)—sent representatives to present plans for the upcoming academic year before CC and propose ideas to increase awareness about the work that each committee does.
The SAO, a committee to support students undergoing administrative, financial aid, housing, and disciplinary conduct issues, discussed their student outreach efforts in advance of an expected increase in student disciplinary hearings regarding unauthorized AI usage on assignments.
“The advent and rise of AI presents a pretty clear opportunity for you all,” said USG Executive Vice President Aaron Horowitz. “I’m sure more students will need support navigating the disciplinary process, and infractions will increase, as the policy sometimes is unclear.”
SAAP members discussed upcoming sexual assault prevention programming for the quarter, including possible “institutionalized workshop trainings with new pledges and new members” of fraternities and sororities on campus, noting the reported sexual assault at the house of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity early Sunday morning.
“Because this is a huge hotspot on campus of sexual assault, we’re hoping that this will be a way for new pledges and current fraternity members to understand the implications, as well as again push more awareness about sexual assault,” said third-year Shalom Kato, SAAP’s project manager.
CC also entered into an executive session—which required most non-CC members, including Maroon reporters, to exit the room—to discuss applicants to the Committee on Recognized Student Organizations (CORSO), but failed to confirm any members out of the six applicants and one chair nomination.
College Council holds weekly public meetings in Stuart Hall 104 on Mondays at 7 p.m.
Editor’s note: Aaron Horowitz is a current staff member of the Maroon. He had no involvement in the reporting of this story.
