By Anna Gombert
On Monday night, Student Government hosted a meeting of the CLA Diversity and Inclusion Committee. The meeting was led by Student Government President Jared Sutton (’18), and co-chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Alcides Costa (’19). There were also two student senators present. The meeting, which took place in Hurst 14, drew a much larger crowd than expected. More than 30 students turned out to learn what they could do to help promote diversity on campus. Several students, who were already involved with diversity programs on campus, shared their ideas and projects, while other students voiced opinions and concerns.
During the meeting, Sutton explained, “This is an actions committee, in the sense where it’s not political action, but what we do is programmatic aspects.”Sutton continued, “The president’s office has been exceptionally supportive of this endeavor, and we are really lucky to go to a school that allows for differing ideas.”
The committee, an arm of Student Government, is a continuation of the large community forum that was held on campus. Costa added, “There was a lot of buzz about, ‘Ok after the meeting what was happening?’ and that’s why we came and stepped in and why Jared implemented the committee on part of Student Government.”
When asked about what this committee would mean for the school, Costa said, “Being younger students and being politically active, we have a lot of people with a lot of opinions. And it’s important that, not only do we voice our opinions, but we act on them, and I feel like this committee is a very good platform for people to start acting on their opinions and on their views and things that they wanted to fight for.”
Sutton urged, “Bring a friend. If you’re interested, bring people. We want this to be as inclusive and diverse as possible. So no one should feel like they can’t come, if they feel like they don’t fit the mold of someone that does diversity and inclusion.”
There will be meetings every other Monday from 8-9 p.m. in the EC Pub. The next meeting is Feb. 13.
