for the 2021-2022 academic year, i was elected to the umd university senate representing undergraduates in the college of behavioral and social sciences; i represented my constituencies in the full senate and held appointments on the senate executive committee, programs, curricula, and course committee, and nominations committee
legislation
senate bill 21-22-04: proposal to promote mental health and equity in the excused absence policy
i am sponsoring legislation to amend the umd excused absence policy to address student mental health needs and inequity in the requirement for physician notes, under consideration by the academic procedures and standards committee
senate bill 21-22-17: proposal to amend the code of academic integrity and the code of student conduct to incorporate other exceptional circumstances
i am also sponsoring legislation to allow consideration of more factors that could render a student conduct sanction especially harsh given a student’s circumstances, under consideration by the student conduct committee
senate bill 21-22-21: amendments to review of university of maryland policy on criminal background checks
i proposed three amendments to the university’s policy on criminal background checks at the april 26, 2022 senate meeting to explicitly name the social context related to community social justice concerns around the policy (i.e., “systemic oppression and criminalization in the legal system that affect marginalized communities”). specifically, the amendments sought to incorporate this into the university’s responsibilities in the policy text (Amendment 1), the committee recommendations (Amendment 2), and in the guiding principles in the policy text (Amendment 3), ensuring these concerns and their related institutional values are not lost during the long-term implementation of the policy.
after the university’s legal representatives spoke against the amendments, amendments 1 and 2 failed on a vote of 30-58-15 and 37-59-17, respectively. amendment 3 passed 58-40-11.
advocacy for online exams in response to covid-19 campus case surge
in response to a surge of covid-19 cases at umd relating to the omicron variant during the final exam period, i composed a letter, which was signed by a majority of undergraduate student senators, to university administration raising concerns about student safety and requesting exams be moved online
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