Updated: April 30, 2026, at 1:45 p.m.
Student Government Association senators passed two resolutions urging officials to provide full-time employed graduate students with coursework extensions and evening mental health services at the final meeting of the SGA Senate’s 50th term Monday.
The Professional Student Flexibility Resolution calls on officials to encourage faculty to implement excused absences and grace periods for graduate students working full time jobs while enrolled in part-time graduate programs, and the Counseling and Psychological Services Extension Resolution urges officials to extend CAPS hours at least once a week to accommodate graduate students not available during the day. Senators also passed eight other resolutions at the meeting, including the Finance Committee’s general allocations bill for student organization funding this fall.
Sen. Stephen Garvey (At large-G), who sponsored both acts supporting graduate students, said the resolutions will help graduate students balance their professional and academic goals and take advantage of University resources, like CAPS’s free initial consultation sessions. He said demanding work schedules and the office’s limited hours have prevented many students from accessing these resources.
The Professional Student Flexibility Resolution calls on the University to provide accommodations for “select” graduate students working full time. Garvey said this includes students who take night classes or are enrolled part time, excluding medical and doctoral students — which Garvey said faculty senators told him the resolution should not apply to because their studies require more time commitment.
Garvey said he hopes the Graduate School of Political Management, where he is a student and sees many peers working full-time while attending classes once or twice a week, will adopt the resolution and that other graduate programs will follow in providing similar accommodations.
“In many cases, students are forced to choose between prioritizing their job and their classwork,” Garvey said. “Through this bill, my goal is to improve the experience for those students.”
Garvey said the CAPS Extension Resolution — which requests the University extend CAPS hours into the evening at least once per week, but does not specify by how long — will assist all students who want to make appointments but can’t because CAPS hours are “not flexible enough.” CAPS is currently open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m Monday through Thursday and to 5 p.m on Friday on the Foggy Bottom Campus, according to the Student Health Center’s website. The Mount Vernon Campus location is open on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“Many of the students who are most affected are graduate students balancing their classes with other responsibilities, including a full time job,” Garvey said. “The current hours may be difficult for these students to seek help, even though they’re under the most pressure.”
Garvey said he thought expanding CAPS’s in-person hours may be difficult amid upcoming University budget cuts, but he hopes the resolution may “get the ball rolling” on further administrative actions or SGA advocacy. CAPS discontinued walk-in appointments last semester.
The SHC last adjusted their hours in August to remain open until 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday — closing an hour later on Monday and Thursday and an hour earlier on Tuesday and Wednesday — a change SGA President Ethan Lynne said took “months of coordination” between the SGA and SHC officials.
Senators during the meeting also passed a resolution approving the Faculty Senate’s February resolution calling for Conflict Education & Student Accountability to extend an addendum in the Code of Academic Integrity reducing the number of members needed for full academic integrity panels — a body of faculty and students who review academic misconduct cases — from five to three members.
The Faculty Senate first temporarily modified the number of panel members from five to three in March 2024 in an effort to expedite academic integrity hearings after reports of academic integrity violations rose by 313 percent from fall 2021 to fall 2023. The Senate extended the policy again in January 2025 due to the low number of faculty members interested in serving on panels, resulting in a backlog of cases. CESA also reported last month a 47 percent increase in academic misconduct cases from spring 2023 to 2025.
The resolution the SGA passed Monday extends the addendum to the end of May 2027.
The resolution removes a spring 2025 provision, which permitted a two-participant ad hoc panel, saying they were rarely used and did not significantly speed up processes. It also requires CESA to provide a report to the Faculty Senate and SGA on the change in number of cases, number of faculty and students willing to serve on panels and time taken to close a case before spring 2027, when faculty senators and the SGA could vote to extend and modify the addendum.
SGA Senators also reserved $279,950 in general allocations funding to student organizations next semester, a $450 increase from the allocation for the spring 2026 semester, funding 249 student organizations who requested money. Fall 2026 will be the second semester since the SGA returned to its original general allocations budget model, after student organizations said the events-based model, which senators approved in spring 2024 to go into effect in the fall 2025 semester, left them confused on how to obtain funding.
Finance Chair Cheydon Naleimaile-Evangelista (CCAS-U) said 11 of the 20 student organizations most funded by general allocations for the fall were cultural or identity based, which he said was SGA “standard.” 12 out of the top 20 student organizations funded for spring 2026 were cultural or identity based associations.
Senators also passed three resolutions to commemorate the International Day of Human Space Flight on April 12, Earth Day on April 22 and mental health awareness month in May.
To mark the end of the 50th Senate, the SGA passed three resolutions in appreciation for Vice President Liz Stoddard, Education Policy Chair Sophie Munson (CCAS-U) and Pro Tempore José Dalmau, all of whom will not be members of the SGA Senate next year.
The SGA’s first meeting of the next term will take place May 1 on the lower level of the Media and Public Affairs Building following the body’s swearing-in ceremony at 7 p.m. in the Jack Morton Auditorium.
This post has been updated to correct the following:
The Hatchet incorrectly reported that the SGA’s first meeting of the next term will take place on May 11 in the University Student Center’s Grand Ballroom. It will take place on May 1 in the MPA Building. We regret this error.
