The Slippery Rock Student Government Association (SRSGA) met at the Robert M. Smith Student Center (SSC) on Monday and heard from the new Chief Diversity Officer, Anthony Jones, about his plans for the university regarding diversity and inclusion.
Jones was hired by Slippery Rock University as the chief diversity officer back in October 2021 and is now beginning to unveil his goals and finalize his initiatives for the university.
“I will be rolling out our Diversity Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan,” Jones said. “That was online for a brief moment but we had to pull it down because it was in the draft stage at this point.
“So, we are looking to finalize a lot of that process and start rolling out some of our initiatives.”
Jones went on to describe the importance of student input during this process of creating new initiatives.
“Student input is important because we’re doing this for you, we wouldn’t have a job without you all,” Jones said. “So, I don’t ever want to lose focus on that.
“I don’t want you all to ever feel like you don’t have any power in this space, because realistically, we have all the power in the space.”
Jones’ ultimate goal is to create an environment where students can feel free to share their experiences regarding racism, sexism and “all other -isms,” anonymously, without having the fear of retaliation or backlash.
Senator Amanda Brock motioned to approve the funding for two new initiatives and a conference grant all in one vote.
One of the new initiatives was $8,558.39 for the Women’s Club Volleyball team in order to attend the National Collegiate Volleyball Association (NCVF) tournament in Phoenix this April.
The second new initiative was $2,250.00 for the Clarinet Choir in order for the group to attend the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) conference this April.
The last financial approval was a conference grant totaling $200.00 in order for two Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority members to attend the Great Lakes Regional Conference.
The motions were all passed unanimously without any debate.
The SRSGA also approved Senator Janessa Hayward’s motion to approve the minutes from March 7.
The motion passed unanimously with no debate.
Vice President of Campus Outreach Aiden Donelly motioned to approve Senator Richard Torpey as a member of the spring 2022 Election Commission.
When asked by President Mia Graziani to speak on the motion, Donnelly reverted his time to Parliamentarian Nic Condon.
“[Torpey’s] been an asset,” Condon said. “This [addition] would round out the election commission fully, so we would have five total sitting voting members so we wouldn’t have any hung votes.
“I think Richard will be a great addition and we’re excited to have him.”
The motion passed unanimously with no debate.
Vice President of Student and Academic Affairs Grant Warmbein led members of the SRSGA and the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) on the campus safety crawl to kick off campus safety week.
Next Tuesday, the SRSGA executive board candidates for the 2022-2023 school year will be participating in a debate hosted by the Elections Commission.
There are a total of 15 unique candidates running for six executive board positions, with 13 women candidates.
The debate will be held during common hour and live streamed through YouTube and Facebook.
Currently, SRSGA did not receive applications for the Transfer Senators and International Senator positions for the next school year, leaving two seats possibly unfilled barring a write-in candidate.
Simultaneously, SRSGA has 10 College of Health, Engineering and Science candidates. If any of the candidates are College of Health students and win, they will more than likely be moved into the new College of Health Senator seats, leaving vacancies in the fall.
Polls for the election will open up next week with all voting taking place on CORE.
The SRSGA plans to hold its next formal meeting on April 4 at 5 p.m. in the SSC Theater. For more information visit their CORE page.
