The University of Michigan Central Student Government met Tuesday night to discuss off-campus housing, the Winter 2023 CSG elections and racial biases within CSG.
During the public commentary portion of the meeting, Public Policy junior Ruth Lynch called on the assembly to pass the Hong Seng Solidarity Resolution, which would signal support for the University’s chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops in condemning alleged wage theft committed by the Hong Seng Knitting Factory, a producer of Nike-branded U-M merchandise.
“Nike pays the University $174 million just to be able to produce (U-M) merch,” Lynch said. “It’s halfway across the world, but we do have real power to actually get money back in (the) hands (of the employees) that deserve (it).”
The resolution was passed unanimously by the assembly.
CSG Elections Director Taylor Quick then gave the assembly an update about the CSG elections taking place on March 29 and 30, with the ballot opening online for all U-M students throughout those two days. Quick said the election committee has spoken with the Graduate Employees’ Organization, who began striking against the University Wednesday morning, before the strike to ensure that the CSG voting booth on the Diag would not interfere with GEO’s walkout and vice versa.
“I already reached out to GEO (executives), we’re both in agreement that we’ll share the space,” Quick said. “They’re gonna be respectful of our polling site. We’ll be respectful of them. And everything is still gonna go as we have been planning, so nothing to worry about with that.”
CSG speaker Karthik Pasupula presented a report on the annual CSG Housing Management Survey at the meeting, which asked U-M students living off campus about their experiences with housing, leases and rent payments. Pasupula said the survey suggested that students wait an average of 250 days, or more than eight months, between signing a lease and the lease’s start date.
“This is counterintuitive to what the Early Leasing Ordinance is supposed to do,” Pasupula said. “So there’s something that we’re missing, and those things may be waitlist fees, non-refundable deposits, just general pressure (to resign) your lease, things like that.”
The Early Leasing Ordinance, passed in July 2021, states that a landlord in Ann Arbor must provide tenants with terms and conditions of a lease no later than 180 days before the end of the current lease period. The ordinance was passed in hopes of protecting students from being forced into signing leases nearly a year before the beginning of the lease.
Art & Design junior Santana Malnaik, the CSG Art & Design representative and part of the communications committee, gave a member report to the assembly, alleging that diversity initiatives are often ignored or met with resistance within CSG.
“It’s beyond frustrating and exhausting to go to school at a (Predominantly White Institution) and to work in CSG, where there is little diversity and little value placed on diversity, even when (people) say there is,” Malnaik said. “When the bare minimum, such as spending five minutes to create a Black History Month Instagram post, is asked of assembly members and it’s a fight to get done, you can see how undervalued diversity initiatives are.”
Aarushi Ganguly, the vice speaker of CSG, called on assembly members to consider their place of privilege within CSG based on their identities and to make room for those of other identities in their thoughts and actions.
“Make an active effort to consider how you occupy the space that you do,” Ganguly said. “Are you actively seeking to respect and value different identities? Are you unintentionally placing less value on some people’s contributions than others? Are you working to understand identities and perspectives?”
CSG also discussed a resolution to allocate funds for the Rackham Student Government Micro-Grant Program, which provides short-term financial assistance to graduate students to support the cost of living and basic needs.
CSG Rules Committee Chair Jarek Schmanski said under the resolution, CSG’s contributions to the micro-grant program are currently set to be in line with those of previous years.
“I do believe … that the current amount, which would be a $5,000 allocation from the (Legislative Discretionary Fund) plus approximately $7,000 from the remainder of the public elections fund — I think that’d be a great contribution to this microgrant program,” Schmanski said.
Daily News Contributor Abigail VanderMolen can be reached at vabigail@umich.edu.