(Photographed by Staff Photographer Mariah Horvitz)
Staff Writer: Connor Sullivan
Email: csullivan14@umassd.edu
The Student Government Association (SGA) hosted Shake the Ship in the Claire T. Carney Library’s Grand Reading Room last Tuesday, March 5th, once again providing a forum for students to voice their questions and concerns.
Shake the Ship is an event conducted by the SGA each semester that gives students a forum to ask questions to a panel of administration members.
“Shake the Ship is definitely SGA’s most important event every single semester,” said SGA Vice President Gent Haviari.
Like last semester, the event featured the SGA’s corresponding secretary, Doreen Darko, posing a series of prepared questions from the students to a panel of faculty and administrators. Students were then invited to ask their own questions.
For this semester, the panel consisted of Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Dr. Kimberly Scott, Associate Vice Chancellor of Administrative Operations Michael Lagrassa, Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management James Anderson, Dean of Student Belonging Kevin Hamilton, Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Thomas Boone, Chief of Police John Souza, and Chief Diversity Officer David Gomes.
The rest of the SGA’s Executive Board, including President Marshall MacDonald and Vice President Gent Haviari, was also in attendance.
Darko began with the SGA’s list of questions, which were divided into four major areas of concern: advocacy, student body, academics, and parking.
For advocacy, Darko asked the panel about their goal of “Shared Governance.” Additionally, she asked about recent changes to billing policy that have “placed a significant financial strain on many residential students, compelling them to settle their bills within a constrained time frame.”
Scott explained that shared governance involved increasing student agency for decisions made on campus. “It is welcoming students to the table with administrators, faculty, and staff,” said Scott.
She explained that they’ve implemented this idea by establishing additional committees that collect student feedback on different aspects of campus life, including academic affairs, infrastructure, and dining, to consider during decision-making.
Vice Chancellor Anderson explained that billing concerns were being addressed through a formalized financial education system for incoming students. This included a new program implemented last August and September, designed to ensure these students knew how and when to pay their bills.
“The number of students that were able to register this fall for spring in their registration window increased,” said Anderson, “Most students had some foundation of a financial plan,” Anderson said future education programs will occur monthly.
For the topic of student body, Darko asked what was being done to proactively address mental health and safety concerns among students on campus.
Regarding mental health concerns, Scott covered their formation of a “student wellness advisory team,” and the new training for faculty to recognize signs of mental health issues in students. She encouraged students to bring concerns to the counseling center or police department, as they provide anonymous feedback to the administration that shows them what issues need to be addressed.
Interim Director of the Counseling Center Erin Carter, who was present in the audience, also addressed the question. She highlighted several of the center’s new programs designed to address mental health concerns, including its LGBTQIA+ support group and open sessions with the International Student Center. She also claimed they are trying to decrease the center’s expected wait period, which is currently two weeks.
“We’re doing everything we can to get people in and get you services as quickly as possible,” said Director Carter
For the safety concerns, Scott covered the recent traffic infrastructure additions designed to decrease speeding, including the new speed humps and concrete barriers. She also covered the increased police presence on campus, saying, “I think John is looking, as we hire additional staff, to establish walking patrols as well.”
Chief Souza also claimed they’re looking into installing additional speed humps around Pine Dale and Oak Glen, as well as adding license plate readers.
“We’ll be able to capture all the vehicle plates of all the people entering and exiting the campus,” said Souza.
For academics, Darko mentioned frustrations among students, such as professors compelling them to attend classes while sick. “What measures can be introduced to prevent this and protect student’s grades?” she asked.
Provost Boone acknowledged these frustrations while expressing the necessity of an in-person experience. He claimed that he and Scott have been looking at creating “a better system for avoiding the details, but still giving a legitimate excuse.” In the meantime, he encouraged students to talk with their professors and to go to the department chair if that didn’t work.
The topic of parking was the largest category of questions posed by the SGA, which reflected a notable rise in parking concerns over the last semester. Darko posed two questions related to the university’s ticketing system.
She raised concerns that tickets could risk a student’s eligibility for various leadership positions on campus, including Residential Assistant. She asked them how parking tickets were factored into the evaluation process for these positions.
Scott said they announced last fall that this would be part of their evaluation, saying, “You have to represent the university well, and that means complying with all the university’s policies as a leader on our campus.” She said that they were working on offering students who pay their tickets a probationary period to “strike a balance between helping the student, but also how do we help the rest of the community.”
Darko also asked if they could expand on a new ticket policy introduced last spring that allows students to offset the cost of tickets through community service. Chancellor Lagrassa addressed this, claiming the administration was excited to introduce the program.
He elaborated on its specifics, saying, “You can get, through community service working off your tickets, up to $120 per academic year, not semester. So that’s about four tickets per year that you can work off, and it’s basically ever hour you work is equivalent to $15.”
Lagrassa added, “We’re more than happy to talk about expanding the program or increasing the dollar amount that’s allowed against them.”
Lastly, regarding traffic, Darko asked what safety measures were being taken to ensure the safety of students’ cars on campus, especially those parked for prolonged periods of time.
Lagrassa said they understood these concerns and were working to fund and install new surveillance cameras and brighter parking lot lighting. Souza added that these cameras would be fixed to the tops of the parking lot light poles “that way it gets that nice aerial view of the lot.”
Souza also claims that he told students who left their cars in the lots for prolonged periods, such as during winter or spring break, “It’s advisable to call the university police, provide your registration, the make and model of your vehicle, and where you’re going to be parking.” He advised these students to park in areas with surveillance cameras, particularly lot 8A.
Darko then let the audience raise their own questions. Several students, including Daniel Flores, a student tutor for the Writing and Multiliteracy Center who had asked about the subject at last semester’s leadership forum, asked about the upcoming renovations of the LARTs building.
Flores was concerned that the current plan was to move the WMC to another room, which would be much less suited to carrying out the center’s functions.
“We’re just kind of wondering if the administration plans to make students more involved in these discussions, or if they plan to be more transparent with the students and the faculty that’s going to be affected by these moves,” said Flores.
Lagrassa responded to these concerns, saying, “This is a work in progress; no decisions have been finalized yet about exactly whose being moved where.” Boone also provided reassurance about the state of the project.
“It’s very much a work in progress,” said Boone, “I wanted to assure you that there’s definitely student involvement, and as they move stuff around absolutely, there will be moments for people who are directly invested to weigh in.”
Student Veteran Senator for the SGA Chryst Rosario asked why students weren’t given a three-day weekend for Veteran’s Day last semester. He stressed the importance of the holiday for student veterans and claimed that many thought the way it was handled was unacceptable.
“Many veterans didn’t have adequate time to mourn. And so the general body of veterans, cause I’m their direct contact, did tell me that this shows that the school doesn’t care, and I told them, ‘The school does care.’ I’m guessing there was some error in place, but I just want to see from you guys. Is there a way this won’t happen again for 2024?”
Boone, who described himself as “one of the few faculty veterans,” said that this happened because of Massachusetts state legislation regarding how to recognize Veteran’s Day when it falls on a weekend, as it did in 2022.
“We were essentially hamstrung. There was no one who wanted to do it this way. It’s down in the weeds, the legal thing that everyone went and consulted,” said Boone.
Anderson, who oversees the Registrar’s Office, which oversees the academic calendar, claimed that they would use the five years before the next weekend Veteran’s Day to plan a better course of action.
“I encourage you to write to our state legislators and express concern about how the legislation is written and what state employees should do and how to observe Veteran’s Day,” said Anderson.
Haviari commented that this was another occurrence of students being negatively affected by the administration being blindsided by state legislation.
“The situation with Veteran’s Day was the second time this year that the legislature failed UMass Dartmouth, including with the Star Store,” said Haviari. I mentioned this at the last Shake the Ship. We need to come up with a Plan B. Something needs to be known in the school ahead of time.”
To close the event, Darko reminded the audience of the SGA’s plan to host their follow-up event, the Leadership Forum, on April 2nd. She also thanked the panelists and attendees for their presence and participation.