Student Government Round Table

By Joyana Richer
News Reporter

Students voiced concerns to members of the student government body and University administration during the Spring Roundtable Meeting.

President Trauth said she is making an effort to ensure a safer feeling campus for students and said she wants to provide more ways for students to feel connected to and heard by their University. She said there are a couple levels to the safety concern. The first being physical safety.

One action Trauth is taking is having vice president of finance and support services speak to students in a presentation about learning campus safety. She said they have just put two million dollars into police security, and a three year lighting project where campus lighting will increase and upgrade over that period of time. Trauth also said they talked with the student government and the grad house and it seems everyone is on board for installing better lighting.

The second is emotional well being and campus inclusion. Trauth said this is a more difficult issue.

“The emotional well being and that feeling of being included is clearly a more difficult issue, because emotional safety isn’t something that you can just fix the way you can a burnt out light bulb,” Trauth said.

She says that the University is looking a lot into what causes that feeling and how to address that.

Trauth said that a lot of the tensions from impeachment process for Connor Clegg were due to outside sources pushing to have chaos and not allowing the University to deal with it privately. However she acknowledged that it was such a wide concern for many students.

Sen. Shania Waugh said she would not only like to see less tensions but also like to see more minorities on campus and in teaching positions so that hurting students can feel more included and connected to a diverse community. Waugh also asked for more events to allow students to talk with the president and the administration. Trauth said she comes about eight times out of the year to events like the roundtable to be open to hearing students’ concerns but also asked Waugh what else she could do to help relieve those tensions.

Trauth encourages colleagues to participate in events that they feel they can be connected and heard from the administration.

For a chance to get involved and have your voice be heard, go to the student government website for opportunities to meet and talk to those in the senate and administration. You can get information here.

Photos by Student Government Facebook Page.