The drizzling mornings, groans of stressed thesis writers in Olin, shrieks while GRS numbers click away in Usdan and glimpses of sunlight on Foss—it’s April at Wes.

Shared experiences and emotions are the glue of our community. But at times our campus feels fractionalized, overwhelmed and unsupported. We have no central place to mourn, celebrate, debate or congregate as the Wesleyan student body. It is no coincidence that every year our campus explodes around a controversial topic after months of never discussing it in the open.

I think the Wesleyan student body deserves more. We are famous for being the most passionate and engaged student body; and our student assembly should reflect that.

We deserve an accountable, representative and fundamentally inclusive student assembly that actively and transparently works to improve our community. We deserve an assembly that goes out of its way to include minority voices. We deserve to have the events we work hard to plan funded, causes we care about considered and our voices respected. And I believe we have the tools to catalyze this change so our student assembly is the nexus of campus life and a platform for action.

One of the major lessons I have learned at Wesleyan is being uncomfortable with change is not a reason to stop it. With the help of present and past-WSA members, students and trusted administrators, Aidan Martinez and I are proposing dramatic changes to the structure of WSA to make this vision a reality. The specifics are laid out on our Refresh Wes campaign page and we will be bringing them in writing this Sunday to the WSA Constitutional Review meeting. If passed, they will become effective for the newly elected WSA, internal leadership voted on in May and all loose ends tied up over the summer.

I am doing this because I love Wesleyan and want to do my part to make it the best place it can be. We deserve the Wesleyan we came here for. I invite you all to join me in this transformation and provide suggestions or ideas you have to saltemuscull@wesleyan.edu.

Cullen is a member of the class of 2016.