Each academic year, organizations across all facets of campus welcome new voices into leadership positions. With that said, it comes with no disagreement that the Undergraduate Student Government Association (USGA) executive board holds the most essential spots for ambitious New Haven students.
Despite the academic term just barely entering full-swing, the USGA e-board has already transformed how student leaders gather on our campus. This past Friday, USGA held yet another General Assembly meeting, the same way that they have been for years. This year, though, things look and feel different than in years prior.
USGA President Darby Brown, alongside the rest of the board, have already been incredibly successful in fostering an open and communicative environment unlike any we have seen in recent years.
Brown sat before those in attendance and reported on her meetings with different faces of the university’s administration, including Barbara Lawrence, the new vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion, access and belonging (DEIAB). Brown voiced satisfaction and optimism in all of her meetings thus far. There is an optimism created by student government leaders feeling comfortable speaking freely about conversations that impact the entire student body. This was paired with constant encouragement for other students to reach out to USGA to speak up about what is important to them, a combination which generated a genuine environment for students to feel comfortable using their voices.
This year’s Vice President for Community, Advocacy and Diversity Youssef Abdelhamid introduced a new DEIAB campaign called “your words have power.” While presenting this initiative, he dove into some of the ways in which this campaign, which had already taken to campus in prior years, was going to be reimagined to foster a space that would not be harmful to any students. This is set to be achieved by the elimination of potentially triggering words in campaign materials that could evoke negative responses by those within the university community. Abdelhamid was mindful and spoke openly about the concerns with the previous campaign while framing the necessary message behind their new initiatives.
The theme of preserving students’ mental health continued up to the administrative level of student affairs. Both Ophelie Rowe-Allen, dean of students and vice president of student affairs, and Alandre Alexis, the assistant director for recognized student associations, took time during their weekly reports to remind students to take care of themselves by hydrating, fulfilling their needs and taking care of their mental health.
The environment created within a student government setting plays a pivotal role in the actions taken by student leaders and other students across campus. The messages conveyed by those within roles that grant them the power to evoke change will guide the ways in which the student body interacts with them. Entering the 2023-2024 academic year, we have full confidence that the USGA e-board has laid down exceptional groundwork to maintain open lines of communication with both students and administration in ways that will transform this campus environment to perfectly reflect the values of the current community, and we are excited to see the path that these leaders pave from now until May.
