CMU inclusion efforts lauded in proposed SGA resolution
SGA President Jake Hendricks and membership director Brett Houle present "A Resolution in Support of Ongoing Efforts for Institutional Transformation” to SGA's Senate Sept. 23, 2019.
A resolution to support a number of diversity and inclusion initiatives undertaken by Central Michigan University this year was introduced to the Student Government Association’s House and Senate at their Sept. 23 meeting.
The resolution was put together over the past couple of weeks by SGA President Jake Hendricks, membership director Brett Houle, and diversity committee chairman Munif Hakim.
The initiatives include an online diversity training module that freshmen and new transfer students must complete in addition to the “Think About It” course current students are familiar with. The course can currently be accessed through CentralLink’s My Account page under the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awareness (DivEqInc)” link.
CMU’s Office for Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion announced the initiatives in response to recent “incidents of offensive language and behavior” on the rise both nationally and on campus, such as two cases where discriminatory messages were written on whiteboards outside students’ dorms last year.
SGA meetings take place 7 p.m. every Monday in Bovee University Center Auditorium and are free for all students to attend.
The initiatives were set in motion by a working group of campus organizations assembled in the wake of last year's bias incidents. The group included the Organization for Black Unity, Collective Action for Cultural Unity, A Mile in Our Shoes, CMU Black Student Union, Have Your Point Expressed, and the CMU chapters of the NAACP and the National Pan-Hellenic Council.
Among other efforts cited by “A Resolution in Support of Ongoing Efforts for Institutional Transformation” is a requirement that new students in Fall 2019 must complete two courses on discrimination in the United States, one on racial discrimination and one on social.
The resolution will be discussed further and eligible for a vote in next week’s meeting. It shines a spotlight on the efforts and symbolically represents that SGA supports the university’s efforts, but has no effect on the efforts themselves.
