The Student Assembly passed a resolution to ban exams on major religious dates, including Yom Kippur in September and Eid al-Fitr in May, in its last meeting of the semester on May 7.
The resolution contained several recommendations calling for the implementation of a system for students to present their conflicts ahead of time and a ban on making make-up exams and projects more difficult than the original assessments.
Bryan Weintraub ’21, School of Hotel Administration representative, was concerned that a University-wide ban on exams on holidays could concentrate exams on a smaller number of days.
“This [resolution] could result in our prelims being scheduled on a much smaller number of days, which could increase stress,” Weitraub said.
The resolution ultimately passed in a 15-3-1 vote with the suggestion that faculty could handle issues over implementation.
Moriah Adeghe ’21, vice president of finance, presented revised regulations for the allocation of the student activity fee, a $321 expense that students pay to support on-campus organizations. The changes allowed the S.A. to require a semesterly budget report from student groups, and granted the S.A. the ability to provide bylaw recommendations for newly approved organizations.
Of these newly approved groups is the Professional Fraternity Council, which will be required to implement a diversity survey, consent education training for all members and release recruitment statistics.
Adeghe was concerned that the “selectivity of these [organizations] and how exclusive they are” undercut the inclusive nature of student-funded groups. Nevertheless, the changes were tabled and will be voted on via email in the future.
Also discussed was a resolution requiring Intergroup Dialogue training for new representatives and a resolution encouraging professors to use online discussion forums for class questions as a supplement to office hours.