By Jennifer Baxter
RHA and GSG oppose SGA bylaw amendments, the School of Business receives helpful funds and Writing for Change hosts their “Telling True Stories” showcase! Read about it in this week’s newsletter.
RHA, GSG oppose SGA bylaw amendments after election disqualifications
By Elizabeth Faragi
The University of Maryland Student Government Association is proposing an amendment of the SGA bylaws after this year’s election cycle ended in a disqualification of both tickets. The current SGA will be voting on whether to pass these amendments at their General Body Meeting on Wednesday, according to sources.
The Residence Hall Association and the Graduate Student Government sent a letter to the SGA on April 28, expressing concern that the proposed amendments setting a bad precident for future leaders was expressed. This is because the SGA rewrote their terms so quickly after inconvenience, according to a letter obtained by Stories Beneath the Shell.
“We urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to reject the proposals,” RHA and GSG members wrote in the letter. “Attempting a post-hoc rewrite of your governing documents in order to avoid accountability under the election rules that your own body voted to approve earlier this academic year is beyond troubling.”
There are a total of 45 proposed bylaw amendments of the SGA Handbook following an SGA general body meeting on April 22, according to SGA documents.
One of the proposed amendments addresses the election violations and the disqualification of both tickets in this year’s election.
“If more than 50% of legislative seats are vacant due to candidate disqualifications, or any other reason, all legislative offices shall be filled by popular vote, and notwithstanding any prior disqualification under election regulations, all otherwise eligible undergraduate students may seek or cast votes for that office,” the SGA proposed amendment document said.
After the disqualification of JusticeUMD and RollTerps of this year’s election, the SGA plans to hold a unique election in the fall to fill the empty seats.
Peyton Steinberg, RollTerps’ presidential candidate, agreed with RHA and GSG’s comments.
“The concerns my ticket has raised throughout this SGA election cycle about fairness, personal and professional integrity and democratic norms are also shared by two prominent campus organizations that have no stake in the campus elections,” Steinberg said.
RHA President Emily Shoemaker wrote that RHA is not comfortable with the precedent that SGA is setting in a statement to Stories Beneath the Shell.
“Our hope is that they decide to follow the decision of their Elections Committee, a group which they confirmed earlier this semester to monitor the election process,” Shoemaker said.
RHA and GSG wrote in their letter that they would no longer trust any agreements with the SGA, citing that they would have a lack of confidence in the SGA’s ability to maintain commitments.
“Not only that, but it would also be viewed as the actions of an illegitimate government,” RHA and GSG wrote. “If you enact these amendments, then RHA and GSG will be compelled to sever all formal ties with your body at the executive level.”
Keegan Clements-Housser explained what it will mean for RHA and GSG to disconnect SGA in a statement to Stories Beneath the Shell.
“RHA and GSG would leave external committees chaired by SGA, remove SGA representatives from our own committees, decline to collaborate with the SGA on event scheduling and planning, and everything else listed in the letter,” Clements-Housser said.
Read more here.
UMD’s School of Business receives funds to help local businesses adopt AI
By Sophia Herndon
The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland received $1.03 million in federal funds last month in order to incorporate artificial intelligence into local Maryland businesses..
According to a Gartner survey, 79% of corporate strategists see analytics and AI as a crucial part of their success over the next two years. On average, AI can accomplish 50% of planning and activities for their businesses.
UMD professors Balaji Padmanabhan, the director for the Center for AI in Business, and Tejwansh Anand, the academic director for the Master of Science in Information Systems and AI programs at the Smith school will lead the university’s initiative.
It will occur through the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Business at the Smith School and “will use the money to analyze existing AI solutions, develop new programs, and provide online courses and workshops for small businesses across the state,” according to the business school’s website.
Businesses in Maryland will gain opportunities to adopt AI, expanding technological development. Local and small businesses in Maryland that haven’t had the opportunity to learn about AI will be benefited.
The Smith School will be working with the Maryland Small Business Development Center throughout the process of training small businesses.
“This grant creates a direct bridge between UMD’s AI expertise and the small businesses that need it most,” said Lora Brown, the state director of SBDC, in an email to Stories Beneath the Shell.
Brown explained how the funding will help businesses through workshops, consulting and training, including that the funding is equally valuable for students, as it will allow them to gain hands-on experience in business development.
Ryan Ledig, a sophomore information systems and supply chain management major, explained how informing small businesses on the adoption of AI will open doors to compete more effectively with more established ones.
“Unless you’ve been established for a long time, it’s gonna be extremely difficult to really have an impact without technology,” Ledig said.
Read more here.
UMD, Northwestern High School students present true stories at Writing for Change event
By Stella Henretta
Writing for Change, a program that aims to share the voices of high school students through the help of University of Maryland student mentors, encouraging them to see themselves as part of a larger community.
Established in 2013, the program continues to leave an impact on students through the hosting of annual performances, such as this year’s “Telling True Stories” showcase which took place Friday. UMD and Northwestern High School students presented projects during the event that accurately depicted the experiences of people living in Hyattsville, Maryland.
This year’s presentation was focused on increasing visibility of how the stories told about local communities shape the way political systems treat them, said Justin Lohr, co-leader of the Writing for Change program and University of Maryland English department principal lecturer.
Lohr believes that UMD students gain a lot out of these experiences.
“ For many students, there is a real encounter with difference — students whose backgrounds are really different from their own, whose life experiences are really different from their own and who bring a kind of knowledge … that the UMD students are perhaps unfamiliar with,” Lohr said. “It’s a really eye opening and revealing experience, and just a real chance to collaborate and sort of build solidarity and a sense of understanding across differences.”
Sophomore English and education major Emmanuel Dean acted as a mentor to a group of four high school students which he was partnered up with.
“I learned really a lot about how high schoolers see the world a little bit more,” Dean said. “They’re so in touch with their community and what they’re experiencing, and that’s something I wish I had when I was back to junior high school.”
The high school students develop a sense of solidarity through Writing for Change, Lohr said. They learn to encourage work with others who are different from them for mutual uplift. Lohr said he was impressed with the high school students’ abilities this year.
“There’s a real act of courage that they are taking, and a real act of agency that they are enacting here, and I think that that’s really powerful and really meaningful for them,” Lohr said.
The Northwestern High School students covered topics that were real issues happening in their community. Cyrilla Truong, a teaching assistant for Writing for Change, said the way they presented these topics in such a powerful way was through writing.
“Writing is communication, and communication is power. Writing is so important and extremely crucial to literary education because I think that without it, without writing, there’s a taking away of power,” she said.
Truong believes that the program displayed growth and creativity in the high school students.
“The cohort this year was absolutely phenomenal in the projects that they made, and just to see all the different types of topics that they want to tackle. It reminds me that young people still always have so much to say,” she said.
Read more here.
Featured Image: Audience members watching a video created by a group of Northwestern High School students during the “Telling True Stories” showcase on May 1, 2026. Photo by Stella Henretta.