With the Student Government Association (SGA) elections underway, The Daily News sat down with the four members of the Alliance slate to discuss their goals.
Unlike the other two slates, Alliance is campaigning without any platform points. Instead, the slate has “focuses” for slate members to revisit when looking at what issues need to be tackled at Ball State.
The following is a list of the slate’s focuses, accompanied with information the slate members provided regarding the purpose of these focuses.
Resources:
The slate members intend to make students aware of the resources Ball State offers and provide any resources students need that are not available.
Aric Fulton, presidential candidate of Alliance, said the only times SGA has cared about the needs of black students is after racial incidents have occurred on campus.
As an example, he said SGA only held two forums alongside the Black Student Association — after the recent classroom incident between Sultan “Mufasa” Benson and his marketing professor Shaheen Borna, and in 2018 following the controversy behind naming a Ball State institute after Papa John’s founder and Ball State alumnus John Schnatter.
To fulfill the needs of minority students, Fulton said, he has already been working with Bobby Steele, director of Multicultural Center, on a website that will have professional internship opportunities for minority students.
When The Daily News reached out to Steele about Fulton’s involvement, he said it is not his professional practice to publicly disclose what he discusses with students. Steele said the Multicultural Center’s website is periodically updated to include more information and resources for students.
Avery Pollard, the slate’s secretary candidate, said she is interested in working on a website, a Twitter account or an email address for Ball State students to forward their concerns to SGA.
Slate members also intend to continue their outreach efforts during the SGA campaigning season throughout the academic year, said James Schwer, the slate’s treasurer candidate.
Transparency:
Alliance slate members said they will advocate for more transparency from the university and ensure transparency from SGA regarding its regular business, including when a legislation or project doesn’t come to fruition.
Mental Health:
This focus, Fulton said, is a subsidiary to the resources focus with the slate members pushing for greater accessibility to the university’s mental-health resources.
He said this includes meeting with personnel from the Counseling Center and the university about concerns students have and advocating for mental-health counselors minority students can identify with.
Inclusivity:
Fulton said this focus is about creating spaces for students to come together and for SGA to listen to them regularly, not just during times of crisis.
He said this includes increasing faculty-student interaction and student interaction with university administration.
While not listed as platform points or a focus, some subjects the slate members said they intend to address include peer advising and peer counseling when the Counseling Center is not open, assisting Spectrum with Safezone training, working with organizations on sexual assault prevention and advertising the resources provided by disability services.
Charles Melton and John Lynch contributed to this story.
Contact Rohith Rao with comments at rprao@bsu.edu or on Twitter @RaoReports.
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