Welcome Back Vikings!
ASPSU Student Government has moved in, hired and trained our hardworking staff, and has been working all summer planning how to make the most of the year ahead of us. There are a lot of promises we made in our campaign, and we’ve accomplished a great deal on all of them – finishing the rest is just a matter of time!
Among the first of these promises was to create a Multicultural Affairs Director position in student government. Jesse Shapiro is our director and he’ll be working specifically on addressing multicultural student issues on campus. If you’re interested in working on student-of-color issues, contact Jesse at 5-8516.
We promised to assist the queer community with networking issues, so we’re working with the leaders from Queers and Allies to create a Queer/Sexual Minority Resource Center. Student-led state-wide efforts are also underway to organize and network queer students on a state level. If interested, please contact Emily Garrick at 5-5676.
Another promise we made was to recreate the Safe-Walk program. Though closed last year due to funding problems, we believe that ensuring campus safety is a high priority for most students. This is especially important now that our library is open for 24 hours. As before, this volunteer-led program will provide escorts to any student or campus visitor who wants to be walked to their home or car within a 15-minute walk of campus. Things are going very well in the inter-group program that includes several campus groups – the Women’s Resource Center, College Housing Northwest, Campus Public Safety and others. If you’re interested in helping with this program, you should contact the Women’s Resource Center at 5-5672.
As many of you know, we conducted a survey this summer to help us prioritize our issues in the order you set for us. We are very grateful that so many of you (more than 500!) shared your ideas with us despite your busy schedules!
We are still completing the planning process, but the results of the survey will be released to the community in late September. Some of the top issues you’ve told us to work on (by way of the survey) include: student health care (especially dental insurance), making student-written professor evaluations available for your review, regulating predatory credit card vendors on campus, and adding a diversity requirement to the current curriculum.
We need your help! Our office is in the basement of the Smith Memorial Center in room 47. Come by and sign up to volunteer or intern for credit. You’ve heard it before: get involved – it can change your life!!
Mary Cunningham, ASPSU PresidentEmily Garrick, ASPSU Vice-president