CCSC passes Race and Ethnicities Representative Colby King’s (CC ’22) proposal for a Religion Representative and discusses ensuring equity in this spring’s online elections.

CCSC continues to impress with its unwavering dedication to making as many student services available as possible during these unconventional times. Not only do they continue to try and make campus as close to familiar as possible but they are also thinking of CCSC’s future in its strive for successful representation of all students.

VP Policy Rads Mehta (CC ‘22) met with more administrators this past week than I could name or count but most notably Dean Chang and Dean Hollibaugh lent her some insights on summer term credit limits and financial aid. While it looks like summer financial aid for students seeking to go over this year’s forty credit limit will be a possibility, removing or increasing the credit limit for students does not look likely. There has been no final decision made regarding summer housing as of yet. 

VP Mehta in collaboration with Class of 2023 representative Dyuti Dawn (CC ‘23) also met with university library representatives to discuss generating a comprehensive list of which libraries are open to undergraduates and their hours. While it is clear that this has become a small ongoing project, they were able to find a solution to students feeling as though libraries are inaccessible because of the conception that one must have a scheduled appointment before arrival. After this collaboration with CCSC, the libraries will change their current messaging about library reservations and clarify to students that they can come to the libraries on a first-come-first-serve basis as long as there are open seats. The libraries will clarify their messaging so that students are aware that they are able to walk in and claim a seat upon arrival. 

Race and Ethnicities Representative Colby King (CC ‘22) has been working on proposing the addition of a Religion Representative position within CCSC in order to help advocate for religious groups who have “historically” been minorities. This particular wording led to an open discussion regarding the proposal during Sunday night’s meeting, with some general body members feeling as though the Religion Representative should be focusing on advocating for minority religious groups seeking support on campus. The question of how “marginalized” or “minority” religion would be defined in the proposal was brough up, to which Representative King replied that given that in the U.S. Christianity is the majority and historically accepted religion, he intended for the proposed position to attend mostly to the needs of those groups who are not as broadly represented in American culture, government, and sociopolitical sphere. VP Communications Krishna Menon (CC ‘22) also made sure to clarify that candidates’ eligibility for the position is not limited by religious affiliation, rather that the purpose of this representative would be to speak to religious concerns more broadly for CCSC. Representative King’s proposal unanimously passed and once appointed, it is expected that this new representative will continue to build the foundations of this roll through collaboration with University Religious Life. 

The next agenda item of the evening was a discussion on how to ensure equitable and fair CCSC elections given that they will be online once again. One general body member raised the issue of ambiguous candidate rules, especially those restricting certain social media behaviors, during election season. VP Communications Menon suggested that perhaps some election rules, such as prohibiting candidate group messaging, are impractical or too strict for online elections. He also addressed the issue of religious holidays falling on critical dates of election season, confirming that this year the board of elections is taking into account religious calendars. Disabilities Representative Blake Jones (CC ‘22) voiced concern over the potential for a lack of accommodations for disabled student candidates, which VP Policy Mehta agreed that zoom captioners and form alternatives will be provided to those students who need them.

Thanks for reading! Come back next week for more information on spring elections and university summer plans.

Image via Bwog Archives.