Members were recalled at the 15th meeting of the 14th assembly, which was scheduled at 7:30 on October 22nd, 2024. This was the first meeting of the Fall semester held entirely on Zoom, due to numerous Central Student Government (CSG) members reporting harassment, intimidation, and one allegation of assault at the October 8th meeting on North Campus. Since that meeting, multiple members confirmed privately that threats have continued on campus and over social media.
Two more members of CSG who caucused with SHUT IT DOWN (SID) were up for recall due to excessive absences. Both recall votes passed with a slim majority, leaving only 8 original SID members in the legislative branch, down from 22 at the beginning of the academic year. Another vacancy was filled by a newcomer from Ross, who was appointed by the BBA Council.
The Wolverine’s Budget Act, the fourth official vote on a budget funding student organizations was passed with a strong supermajority and ended the Fall budget crisis. The bill allocated $385,000 to student organizations, on top of tens of thousands for other various CSG programs including Airbus and compensation for dozens of CSG employees. The competing Rebuilding Education in Gaza Act was ruled out of order due to its duplicate appropriation of funds with the Wolverine’s Budget Act.
The President and Vice President were criticized for their respective denials of responsibility concerning the alleged events at the October 8th meeting. LSA Representative Margaret Peterman criticized the administration: “I myself have received threats… To say that these actions do not have material consequences would be false.” Additionally, despite official SID Instagram posts encouraging their followers to “pack CSG” and sharing a profanity-laden video following the failure of their sponsored petition, the executive categorically denied any responsibility for the alleged actions of some protestors.
In the aftermath of the 10/8 meeting, President Chowdhury hijacked the official CSG social media page, changing access permissions to prevent other CSG staff from accessing the page, per source. President Chowdhury also reposted the same SID video described above, which would be a violation of the CSG Ethics Code. As of 10/22, the page is confirmed to have been restored.
Elections Director Hayley Bedell shared that the November 20/21st special elections had the most candidates to fill vacancies ever recorded in CSG history. Still, she encourages more candidates to file up until the November deadline. For more information, go to the Elections tab on the CSG website.
CSG also faced a backup of numerous resolutions, both due to the extended Fall break and the evacuation of the meeting on October 8th. Nearly all bills were referred back to committee by standard procedure, which included:
- Trans Umbrella Student Protection Act
- Disability Cultural Center Creation
- Bereavement Absence Policy
- Psychology Minor Creation
- Petition Review Act
- Disability Ex-Officio Act of 2024
Two that passed were:
CSG will meet next Tuesday, October 29th at 7:30 PM. A source familiar with the matter said it is extremely likely that there will be no in-person component to the meeting, due to safety concerns.
In future articles, the Michigan Review pledges to cover your Central Student Government with exclusive details, behind-the-scenes context, and with utmost regard for the truth. For questions, comments, and concerns, please reach out to tfioritt@umich.edu. Democracy dies with indifference.
Disclaimer: Tyler Fioritto has run in multiple elections alongside numerous active CSG members. Some of the above bills have Fioritto’s name listed as an author, due to his contributions.
