(Photographed by Staff Photographer Katelyn Pereira)

Staff Writer: Brian Galindo

Email: bgalindo@umassd.edu

Shake the Ship is an event hosted every semester at UMass Dartmouth where students come in and ask questions directly to the administration about things that matter to them.

This semester, the event was hosted on October 23, 2024, in the Marketplace. Having attended the event, I will go over everything talked about.

The panelists were Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Kimberly Scott, Vice Chancellor of Administration and Facilities David Gingerella, Provost Ram Bala, and Chief of Police John Souza.

Additionally, several other members of the UMD administration took questions during the event.

The first part of Shake the Ship, the listening and answering portion, had a list of questions made before the event by the Student Government Association (SGA) for the panelists and additional staff to answer as needed.

The second part, the Q&A, allowed students to submit answers via a Google Form to be read aloud to the administrators.

The person reciting the questions in these segments was SGA’s Corresponding Secretary, Molly Gookin, who also served as Master of Ceremonies, helping to communicate the transition of segments.

The third and final portion of the event, the reception, involved members of SGA pulling tickets to raffle off items for students who came to view and participate in the event.

The listening and answering portion was broken into segments based on the area of admin to which the question was directed. This included housing, facilities, and parking, among others.

The housing issues were, of course, related to the many issues of our past move-in, many of which were covered in Business Manager Brendan Flaherty’s recent article, “Housing Frustration: Your Thoughts and Concerns Recognized.” 

An additional issue that was brought up concerning housing was that of beetles and other bugs being in the dorms when people moved in. In response, the administrative panelists suggested that most insects in the dorms were related to people failing to remove their garbage properly.

While that might undoubtedly lead to an uptick in insects within dorms, one does wonder how trash can lead to them being there when no one has lived in the dorms for months, and certainly, no one has needed to dispose of waste in these empty rooms.

Moving onto the facilities portion, many questions pertained to the improvements to the Liberal Arts building (LARTS), the building timeline, and what to expect.

Vice Chancellor Gingerella said that the LARTS improvements would start in the fall of 2025 and should finish by the following spring. In the meantime, classes usually taking place in LARTS will be spread across the other academic buildings on campus. 

The Vice Chancellor of Administration and Facilities also implied that classes may be more likely to take place at odd times during those semesters. However, students will absolutely still be likely to get the courses they need to graduate.

Finally, the burning question asked by SGA was about the difficulty of finding parking spots, especially for freshmen.

Vice Chancellor Gingerella and Chief Souza discussed the concern, commending SGA’s prior work on the issue of freshman parking, which led to the creation of the express shuttle route in years past.

There was a bit of a communication kerfuffle during this question, as both the Vice Chancellor and the Chief of Police said conflicting things related to the issue of students parking in the lots where the old freshman dorms stood.

Vice Chancellor Scott also tackled the issue, saying that the three of them would discuss it further before advising students on whether or not to park there.

The Q&A section saw a bit of heated debate between students and administrators.

One of the first questions was asked by Student Trustee Gent Haviari, who related the various bodies of student governance, namely the SGA and Graduate Student Senate (GSS), and how they can work with the administration to train themselves on safety protocols further.

Vice Chancellor Scott responded to this by, rather interestingly, reminding Gent and the rest of the student body that student governance is just about students getting their voices out there but that it didn’t have any real power.

Dr. Scott finished by saying that the only reason student governance actually gets things done is that the administration happens to agree with them.

This was in direct opposition to the earlier compliments received by SGA about the freshman parking problem.

Speaking of parking, another question was raised: Why aren’t cars being towed for constantly parking in the wrong lots?

Chief of Police John Souza answered this question, saying it took five tickets before one could be towed and that that process is orchestrated outside the university. Despite this, it’s plain to see cars with one, two, sometimes even three tickets piled on their windshield, no parking sticker in sight, sticking right where they are.

The issue of parking without passes has made it nearly impossible to find parking spaces on campus. Anecdotally, in the past week, as I write this, my girlfriend has either struggled or outright failed to find parking in the Woodlands lots on three separate occasions.

Still, the administration blames the students for parking in the wrong lot instead of doing anything about it.

As a potential solution, a student suggested limiting or outright not allowing cars for first-year residential students. The panelists discussed this suggestion, how it had been talked about in SGA, and how it was ultimately thrown out due to a lack of support.

Still, that solution was better than what was offered by the panelists.

Finishing off, the reception segment of the evening was very casual, with people wandering about as items were raffled off. Raffle items included a TV, SGA merch, and a parking pass.

All this to say, Shake the Ship was, as always, a very interesting event with lots of interesting discussion and debate.

Interested in keeping up with SGA? Follow them on Instagram at @umassdsga!