The creation of three new committees to improve support minority groups on campus was announced by Ruslan Klafehn, the Vice President of Multicultural Affairs, at Monday’s Binghamton University Student Association (SA) congress meeting.
The first of the new committees will focus on retention rates for students of color, which Klafehn said are low at BU. The second committee will take a look at the cultural competency training at BU and offer suggestions and improvements. The final committee, the Cultural Change Committee, will work to improve acceptance on campus. Any undergraduate student may apply to be on these committees.
“I talked with some concerned students about what they would like to see done on the SA’s part,” Klafehn said. “We’re going to address how we can change the campus climate and how we can change student’s perspective to have students become more tolerant.
Congress also discussed Frost Fest and the line-up for Spring Fling. Bernadette Machuca, the Vice President of Programing and a senior majoring in biology, said this year’s Frost Fest will feature a silent disco as well as a Build-A-Bear station. Machuca also said that students would get a free t-shirt with the donation of a canned good.
With the Spring Fling survey sent out, Machuca said all students should complete it as soon as they can, as plans for the bidding process are set to begin by the end of next week.
“I read everything that people post on [the survey],” Machuca said, “and I look at every single result for every single artist.”
Two pieces of legislation, F2015 10/R Undergraduate Teaching Assistance (UTA) and F2015 11/BA Election Bylaws Revision (EBR), were also passed. EBR would remove wording in the constitution which specifies the use of paper ballets, a practice that is no longer in use. UTA would increase the number of undergraduate teaching assistants in all departments.
“This legislation is to make sure that students have more chances to become a teaching assistant, especially if it’s in a field [they’re] interested in,” said Amanda Baker, the Vice President for Academic Affairs and a senior double-majoring in math and history.
Both pieces of legislation were passed to be discussed further and voted on at the next meeting. The meeting ended with a discussion about the possibility of moving the Congress Executive Board sweeps. The event, which previously took place in Lecture Hall, could be held in the Mandela Room instead this year, and will be decided soon following feedback from community governments.