SGA Senate Passes Three Resolutions on Student Life and Academics
Image Courtesy of The Catholic University of America Student Government Association
By Anna Harvey
The Catholic University of America Student Government Association hosted its third meeting of the 2021-22 academic year on Monday, November 1; SGA Vice President Monica Wallace presided over the meeting.
Senate Meeting 7-03 addressed a Cardinals for Life appeal for Treasury Board funding and addressed three resolutions concerning increased WiFi access, a streamlined grades appeal process, and improved access to Disability Student Services accommodations.
The proceedings started with Wallace calling the room to order and reminding all about the ongoing mask mandate.
After roll call, the Pledge of Allegiance, and prayer, the floor opened for public comment; comments were limited to one minute, and Wallace reminded the public of maintaining decorum while speaking.
Members of the Treasury Board encouraged senators to deny the appeal. Members of the Cardinals for Life (CFL) Executive Board, as well as attendees of CFL, spoke in favor of the appeal.
President Abby Anger thanked everyone for attending the meeting, as well as the Senate, the Treasury Board, and Cardinals for Life for using the necessary resources and channels of SGA to advocate their perspectives.
After the agenda and the minutes from the prior meeting were adopted, Senator Sharpe, Chair of the Rules and Administration Committee, reminded the Senate of bylaw reforms and standard conduct.
Senator Maura Schlee of the Academic Affairs Committee reported that the committee developed a resolution to implement mental health days, a resolution to reform the academic dishonesty policy, and a resolution to reform the disparity of academic advising. Senator Jamie Besendorfer of the Committee of University Services stated that the committee would be looking into a collaboration between certain student organizations and dining services; she stated that she would be meeting with members of the law school for a future resolution. Senator Garrett Farrell of the Committee of Student Resources stated that a future resolution would be coming to expand Pryzbyla Center hours. Senator Grace Birth from the Committee on Campus Life stated that future legislation could include reform to the Counseling Center and Title IX.
Proceedings then turned to confirm the appointment of the new senator of the school of Theology and Religious Studies, Andrea Suarez.
After a rigorous debate over the CFL appeal, the appeal failed 10-14.
The proceedings then shifted to Resolution 010, sponsored by Sharpe and cosponsored by Schlee, Kazanci, Crnkovich, and Moore. Resolution 010 would allow students to challenge all grades and protest unfair grading policies or potential discrimination; this resolution would replace the original policy, which allowed students to challenge only failing grades. The resolution mentioned numerous Catholic schools, such as Loyola University of Maryland, Villanova University, University of Dallas, Boston College, Benedictine College, and Franciscan University, whose policies currently allow students the opportunity to appeal grades.
“So unlike the many universities listed here, Catholic University is not providing students an opportunity to challenge their grade,” Sharpe said. “One thing that I would add is that the current process set up now for appeals of final grades has not been amended since 1985.”
Senator Pelekasis lent her support but asked for more details about the current appeals process. Sharpe clarified that a student would submit in writing their complaint to the dean of their academic school, and the dean would send each complaint to a committee, which would then call in witnesses, which would draw out the appeals process. Schlee clarified that the current high amount of work and effort required of students to complete this process is unnecessary and that the proposed resolution would streamline the process.
With 24 yeas, 0 nays, and 0 abstentions, the resolution passed.
The proceedings then shifted to Resolution 011, which was sponsored by Birth and cosponsored by Senators Kwiatek, Drauschak, Farrell, and Pelekasis. The resolution aimed to improve WiFi access across campus, including WiFi extenders both within residence halls and in other high-density gathering areas of both indoor and outdoor venues.
Birth stated the importance of advocacy on the part of the Senate for the students and commented on the WiFi outage the University had experienced that day.
“This advocacy is important because lack of WiFi access is something that students encounter on a regular basis,” Birth said. “Sometimes it’s there’s many people utilizing the internet in a certain space, and other times there are specific buildings with particularly bad WiFi.”
She also stated that WiFi within residence halls takes precedence over outdoor studying areas, but that extenders for outdoor areas would be greatly appreciated by constituents and non-constituents, as well as the improvement of bandwidth and increase of funding for internet connection.
Crnkovich questioned whether the issue had been raised to administrators. Both Crnkovich and Schlee questioned the broad phrasing of the resolution.
Birth stated that administrators had not been responsive to prior requests and that the broad phrasing was necessary in the case of implementing certain diagnostics.
Scott gave a personal anecdote about the lack of WiFi in Gibbons classrooms and the dysfunctionality of ethernet cables.
With 24 yeas, 0 nays, and 0 abstentions, the resolution passed.
The proceedings then shifted to Resolution 012, sponsored by Senator Fahey and cosponsored by Besendorfer, Martin, Birth, Cunningham, Holcomb, and Schlee for increased availability within the office of Disability Support Services (DSS) for testing accommodations and notetaking services.
Fahey detailed the many complaints from students about the lack of accommodations and communication from the DSS office.
“As you heard in the resolution clause, students have experienced significant difficulty while obtaining these services, especially freshmen students who have not used them through this program before,” Fahey said. “Initially I had been hearing from fellow students about the headaches of finding testing accommodation slots, encountering uninformed and ignorant professors, and experiencing breaches of confidentiality in the classroom.”
Fahey clarified, however, that one staff member in the small-staffed DSS office currently manages 50-100 students for testing accommodations, with one seat in the DSS office and eight in the storage room. She also elaborated upon the lack of communication on the part of DSS and professors of the guidelines of notetaking and test accommodations. She noted, however, that DSS had significantly improved over the past five years and that she had a productive meeting with DSS about changing methods of communication between DSS and professors and students, from implementing specific notetaking guidelines to uploading infographics from their office.
Crnkovich asked if there has been a continued increase in the numbers of students using DSS accommodations, as well as making use of the counseling center. Fahey clarified that while there are no concrete numbers, the number of overall accommodations has risen; she stated, however, that in the middle of the semester, the number of students utilizing these services reflects that of a bell curve and has dramatically risen.
With 24 yeas, 0 nays, and 0 abstentions, the resolution passed.
The proceedings then shifted to the Vice Presidential updates. Wallace reminded senators of the Town Hall meeting next week with President Garvey and of “Meet your Senator,” which occurred on Tuesday, November 2nd.
The proceedings then shifted to open floor. Farrell stated his support for members of the public attending Senate meetings and encouraged senators to invite their friends to attend future meetings. Moore commented on a future resolution, and Pelekasis advertised several events occurring at the Rome School, specifically “Children of Eden,” and celebrated the return of the arts to campus. Schlee asked for notes and opinions on CACS for future committee meetings.
The meeting was adjourned.
