The University of Maine Student Government (UMSG) held its 13th and final meeting of the semester on April 29, led by President Keegan Tripp and Vice President Memphis Peterson. The last meeting of the 2024-2025 school year was marked by preparations for the remaining days of the school year. Throughout the meeting, many graduating executives and senators said bittersweet goodbyes to the Senate and shared reflections on their time as members of the organization.
Club Maintenance and Guest Speaker
The Waste Minimizers Club, now with 120 members and several events under its belt, was unanimously approved for final recognition by the Senate.
This meeting featured two guest speakers, UMaine Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer Kelly Sparks and Counseling Center director Angela Fileccia. Sparks is departing the university in mid-June to become Vice Chancellor at the University of California Berkeley. She discussed the university’s ongoing efforts to balance the system budget amid continued uncertainty regarding the off-and-on nature of federal funding for university programs and the graduate school under the Trump Administration.
Fileccia, who shared that she has been working hard to dispel myths and misconceptions about the counseling center (including reaffirming the fact that the counseling center is free for both undergraduate and graduate students), encouraged the continued use of their programs by the UMaine student body.
Executive and Periodic Reports
President Tripp, who is returning as president next year, called this most recent session the most productive he had seen during his time at UMaine, and wished luck to all graduating seniors departing UMSG.
Vice President of Financial Affairs Oliver Bois reported that UMSG will begin the next academic year with roughly $244,000 in their budget, including rollover from this academic year.
Representative Board Reports
Representative Palace Appiah issued one final reminder to assist with the annual Maine Day Meal Packout hosted yearly by the Honors College, which was held in the Field House from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on April 30.
Representative Zachary Wentworth of the Senior Class Council encouraged graduating fourth-year students to attend the events being held by the Class of 2025 Council and the Hearty Maine Farewell.
Other representative board officers, including Representative Jon Guzman of the Student Heritage Alliance Council, Representative Danny Tanaka of the Student Athletic Advisory Council, Representative Dylan Demerchant of the Commuter and Non-Traditional Students Board and Representative Kaidar Donenbayev of the International Students Association discussed leadership transitions within their respective organizations.
Representative Kass Belaya of Wilde-Stein reminded members of the Lavender Graduation being held on May 3rd in the Coe Room, and stated that students who cannot attend yet wish to receive a rainbow graduation cord should contact him.
New Business and Special Orders
There were eight resolutions brought to the floor at this meeting by Senator Nate Feng of the Policy and Procedure Committee. All of them were procedural, and seven of them were chiefly internal in purpose. Three passed to reestablish the Senate’s special committees, which expire at the end of the year and must be reapproved until they cease to exist, or are organized into permanent committees. These committees are the Mental Health, Food and Dining Affairs and the Undergraduate Student Symposium committees. Tripp expressed his hope that some of these committees would become permanent standing committees in the future.
The remaining resolutions allocated funds to the Maine Outing Club for storage of gear, modernized internal evaluations of executives to reflect standard practice, standardized UMSG governing documents surrounding the language applying to its executive team, amended the timeline for the Leadership Scholarship award and allowed UMSG to automatically return unused allocated funds back into its budget.
During Special Orders and Announcements, Peterson shared his last words in the role, expressing his pride in the Senate’s hard work during his years with the organization and his gratitude for the respect he was treated with by other members of UMSG.