This wespeak is a response to recent protests on campus and is in the context of the WSA’s silence on these important student issues. I will not affirm my support or my opposition to the issues themselves. Nevertheless, the protests have been remarkable, and the progress has been heartening. I hope that these events lead to improved student representation and voice on campus, and positive progress for the issues of the movement.
Nevertheless, there has been misinformation. I believe that there is a shared blame for the misinformation on campus. The WSA has offered numerous forums to students which have been extremely poorly attended (on a broad swath of issues, including but not limited to safety, gender-neutral housing, off-campus housing, and WESU), but apparently has not done an adequate job conveying information to students about what has been happening in the assembly and in the various committees.
I will do my best to convey some of this information, which has gone unclarified up until this point. I am clearly not privy to all the information that students might want to know but I will give my best shot:
•Gender-neutral housing: this issue HAS NOT been tabled. It is currently being discussed in the Student Life Committee, which contains ample student and administrative representation. Peter Patton and Elaine Garven (egarven@wes) chair this committee. Progress has obviously been unacceptably slow, but the WSA has worked assiduously to get this done.
•Senior Woodframe Houses: These are not going away. Those that are structurally unsound may be torn down, and replaced by newly built houses. The construction of the Fauver Field dorm will accommodate those who might have lived in Intown, while the woodframes will remain an option.
•Off-campus housing: The administration is clearly committed to eliminating off-campus housing. Nevertheless, Nathan Victoria (nvictoria) is writing a document to demonstrate the necessity of off-campus housing. Your input would be valuable.
•Safety (the RIDE): WSA fought the administration as they took away escort and brought in the RIDE. There have been some successes: in addition to the two RIDE loops (x3788), there is also a special services van (same number, ask for special services) for students who live off the RIDE route or need special assistance of any kind. We have also held two student forums (both poorly attended) in trying to build a broad-based committee (including all types of community members) to lobby the administration on this issue. We continue to work on this issue and will present a plan in January (contact nvictoria@wes, or bmitchell@wes).
•Safety (Hate Crimes): The safety committee (which has open membership) has attempted to address this issue. Nevertheless, there has been little community interest. We continue to work on these issues. The contact people are Brittany Mitchell (bmitchell) and Nora Connor (nconnor).
•Diversity Training: The administration now mandates diversity training for all staff members (effective next fall), although faculty members are still not mandated to do this. On this particular issue, it is near impossible to mandate faculty to undergo training unless they agree. They are an entirely self-governing body and the reform would likely have to come from within.
•Ethnic Studies: There are members of the assembly with voice and vote in the Educational Policy Committee of the faculty. We are willing to work with any students that have ideas about curricular reform. Contact me (zkolodin), or Karen Courtheoux (kcourtheoux).
Let me be clear about how I see the role of the WSA. We are your democratically elected representatives. Our sole interest is representing student voice. Up until now, we have not done a sufficient job demonstrating to the student body how we represent them. There are clear limits to our power on campus: we do not have final say on any campus issue unless the administration grants it to us. Nevertheless, we are a dynamic resource: elected student representatives sit on a variety of important committees that oversee student life on campus, and our top officials definitely have the administration’s ear if not their minds. We have voice and vote, and we do our best most of the time, even if we lose some of our battles. Those battles that we win are not always publicized, because changes that are not made do not make the news. I cannot speak for the entire assembly (and throughout this statement, I have spoken only from my personal perspective), but I desperately want to regain the mandate of the students. We will continue to reach out to students in the ways that we have previously done, and will expand our outreach in other forums. Please utilize the resources offered here; the greater the engagement of students in legislative affairs, the louder our voices can be.
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