By: Jessica Griggs ~Editor-in-Chief~
As the Student Government Association’s (SGA) executive election draws near, the running tickets have begun campaigning.
The platforms of each ticket appear below in alphabetical order in the forms in which they were provided to the Newswire.
AAA
AAA submitted a shortened platform as the original was too long to publish. Their platform in its entirety can be found at ateamxu.weebly.com/ the-platform.html
A Plan for a Proactive Executive Office
We are three experienced outsiders, looking to improve our school for all. We are ‘The Ticket Forward’. Our priorities are to strengthen our Ignatian heritage, fight sexual assault, and to increase sustainability on Xavier’s campus.
Strengthening Our Ignatian Heritage
•Fight for reform to Goa or intro level theology courses, making it so that Ignatian Heritage is a required part of the curriculum.
•Work with the Center for Faith and Justice to develop retreats that are directly useful to students and are marketed that way.
•Be in close contact with the student governments of schools like Regis University, Creighton University and others with a strong value of their Ignatian values to learn from them and use their ideas to make Xavier a greater success.
Discussing Tough Issues
•Organize an Election Fair that invites all political candidates and issues that will be on the ballot for each year to come to campus for a club day setup.
•Foster a better relationship with student senators.
•Work with the City of Cincinnati’s It’s On Us campaign to set up workshops and events on campus that fight sexual assault. •Work with the Black Student Association to fight the racial divide on campus and be advised by leaders in the African American community on how to make minority students feel more welcomed.
Sustainability
•More water bottle filling stations on campus to promote reusable water bottles.
•Work out a way to amend the new printing policy to be less discriminatory towards members of certain majors, who are required to print more.
•Work with the City of Cincinnati on a new textile recycling program they are promoting, and bring it to campus.
•Reform Xavier’s recycling system to allow plastic recycling. Student Life
•Fight for more late night food options.
•Implement a rotating art gallery in GSC that features Xavier artists on the ground floor.
•Work with OrgSync to improve the system for club leaders with a simpler platform
•Through OrgSync, publicize room availability (or through the Xavier app).
•Give clubs better resources for promotions, and encourage clubs to use their social media sites to increase promotions.
•Disability access to husman stage.
•Putting a water fountain by the basketball courts.
•Allowing local food trucks on campus.
•Encourage clubs to use fair trade brands for their T-Shirts.
Bursting The Xavier Bubble
•Build a relationship with the City of Cincinnati in order to better collaborate on important issues.
•Build a station on campus so students may purchase bus passes or advertize the new Cincy EZ Ride app.
•Work with the developing Wasson Way Bike Trail to cater to the needs of Xavier students.
•Get Red Bike on campus to accompany the construction of the Wasson Way Bike Trail.
JJM
Sustainability:
• Bottle filling water fountains, specifically Buenger
•Better hand dryers
•Working with the caf, especially because of no more composting Community Outreach:
•Attend city council meetings to see what Xavier can do
•Off campus students and their community
•Service option promoted/ made mandatory for write ups
•Town-Gowns (reestablish this program with the outside community)
Inclusivity and Diversity:
•More SGA sponsored events with clubs (BSA, ASA, LGBTQ Alliance)
•Maybe making events mandatory for senators?
•Work with BART, Title IX, and others to continue conversation
•Committee appointments done with the Jesuit identities in mind
Student Outreach:
•Financial literacy courses
•Open communication between SGA and students
•Coffee hours, meet the execs, open meetings
•Attending club meetings and helping those who need it
•Create easy access to administrators
•Work w/ administration to compile list of landlords so that Xavier is looking out for its students
Health and Safety:
• Sexual health conversations
•Work through Mcgrath and various offices like Title IX
•Work with XUPD about creating a safer walk to the village
•Be that more lights, blue light, or security officer on weekends
•Mental health advocation
•Promote psychologists at McGrath and Sycamore House around midterms/finals
•Work with teachers to advocate for anti-stress methods that worked for them in college and in their jobs
•Potential Smoke-Free Campus policy
•Making sure that the student body voice is heard in this important university issue
Student Employment:
•Job opportunities for international students
•RA, on campus jobs
•Promote work-study to first years to explain the process
SSM
SSM submitted a shortened platform as the original was too long to publish. Their full platform can be found at www.substanceoverslogan.weebly.com
As student leaders, we will establish sex education and encourage student conversation about safe sex. We will push to provide condoms on campus. We will ensure that our sex education is inclusive, not heteronormative.
To improve accessibility for disabled students, regardless of the disability, our ticket will provide access the student section during games by building a ramp and have automatic doors in the Hoff Dining Commons. By increasing attention to the recruitment of disabled students, and creating a campus that can be proud of its efforts towards inclusivity for the disabled, we will produce a generation of more conscientious, compassionate Xavier graduates.
As your executives, we will push to increase transparency by opening the budget meetings so every student will know exactly how their money is allocated.
Our ticket plans to change the standard student activity fee by a mere $5 in order to make intramural sports completely free for every student. We have scheduled a meeting with Dave Johnson next week. This ticket is immensely optimistic about the results of this meeting and the health benefits of free intramural sports and the comradery of increased competition for the Xavier community.
We will work with the city council and the Norwood Police Department to put more lighting on the streets adjacent to campus, not only to help prevent crime, but to help students feel more safe while walking to and from campus. We will fight to work alongside citizens and police officers alike to clean up the surrounding areas, and create a citizen’s patrol around the local community.
By increasing awareness of mental health groups that already exist, making these groups accessible for students, and advocating to create groups that have been neglected, we will address the persistent challenges that students struggling with mental health face. Online scheduling for counseling would allow students who are most in need to access the services they require.
We will initiate a breakfast, funded by SGA, thrown on the days when break begins. Individuals who feel like they are without a club, that are not returning home for breaks or do not have a home to return to, will have a home provided for them through the Xavier family.
With the working relationship that the ticket has the Gallagher Student Center manager, Chris Marshall, we will reform GSC as a fun and recreational space for students. We also plan to invest in the CLC as a tranquil study space. By doing so we will fully utilize the potential of both of the GSC and CLC, separating recreation and studying.
Having multiple clubs work together in a movement to gain more traction for smaller clubs will be beneficial for both clubs and students. Incentivizing the clubs to collaborate will give them more of a reason to begin the collaboration with other clubs.
As executives we will push for earlier move-in dates to make the transition into college easier for international students and first-year students alike. These efforts will provide students with the opportunity to get used to our campus and settle in before attending classes.
We will revamp the peer mentoring program for all international and out-of-state students to pair them with Cincinnati natives. We believe that the Xavier experience should not just include this campus, but also our beautiful city of Cincinnati.
When in office, we will work to make the efforts of student government transparent to students by holding bi-weekly or monthly town hall-style meetings. We will also open the floor to students to express their concerns and suggestions directly to their government in a forum that would allow for open discussion.
ZRE
ZRE submitted a shortened platform as the original was too long to publish. Their platform in its entirety can be found on both their Facebook page and their Instagram bio, both titled ZREforx.
1.It’s On X Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness
2. Student Housing over Breaks
3. Dean’s Advisory Boards
4.LGBTQIA+ and Ally Program Development and Expansion
5. Smoke Free Campus
6. Solidarity Exchange Program
7. Student Clubs Programming Space and Grant
8. Cultural Competence
9.Gallagher Student Center Enhancements
10.Community Engaged Fellows Linked Volunteer Pool
11.XavierFest Sponsor/Partnership
12. Club Councils
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