Diversity, equity and inclusion training
Senators will attend a training within six weeks of the start of the fall and spring semesters or of taking office. ASWSU Senator Lauren Slater wrote the bill and said the resolution is a passion project of hers.
Slater said the bill’s intention is to ensure representatives of the student body are educated about how to be an ally to all students.
Learning how to effectively and respectfully communicate with constituents is important, she said.
“My hope with this bill is that we learn how to communicate better and communicate more respectfully with everyone around us,” Slater said. “Even us within the senate, and communicating with the executive as well.”
After experiencing microaggressions and inclusive language errors because of her bipolar disorder, ASWSU Senator Lauren Slater involved herself with diversity, equity and inclusion training.
“‘Oh the weather is so bipolar,’” she said. “A lot of people don’t realize that it’s actually offensive, because obviously the weather doesn’t deal with the same mood swings that I deal with.”
Slater, senior political science major, is drafting a bill that would make DEI training mandatory for ASWSU senators once a semester. Training would cover a variety of different topics including microaggressions and inclusive language.
The goal of the training is to equip senators with a better and more respectful way to lead. Slater said she believes after receiving DEI training, senators will have an easier time interacting with constituents.
ASWSU unanimously approved to place a $5 student fee initiative on the ASWSU ballot, which would support the WSU food bank in creating a sustainable solution for student food insecurity, during a meeting Wednesday.
Currently, volunteers operate the food pantry. Donations come from community members and businesses like the Community Action Center and Moscow Food Co-op. Volunteer efforts are not a good long-term plan to address the issue, said ASWSU Senator Oluwanifemi “Nife” Shola-Dare and referendum co-author.
“We should all be surprised, and also disappointed, that there is nowhere in WSU’s budget that is allocated for the food pantry on campus,” Shola-Dare said.
Cristina Nehring on What s Wrong With the American Essay
Of bars that he no longer sees. “Essaylamba.com,” Rainer Maria Rilke
The essay is in a bad way. It’s not because essayists have gotten stupider. It’s not because they’ve gotten sloppier. And it is certainly not because they’ve become less anthologized. More anthologies are published now than there have been in decades, indeed in centuries. The Best American Essays series, which began in 1986, has reached 20 volumes. The problem is that these series rot in basements when they make it as far as that. I’ve found the run of American Essays in the basement of my local library, where they’ll sit with zero date stamps until released gratis one fine Sunday morning to a used bookstore that, in turn, will sell them for a buck to a college student who’ll place them next to his dorm bed and dump them in an end-of-semester clean-out. That is the fate of the essay today.
Students might have the opportunity to access mental health, food insecurity and academic resources in a portal available through Blackboard and Canvas.
Brianna Kostecka, ASWSU deputy director of academic affairs, discussed the portal’s development during an ASWSU Senate meeting Wednesday.
The portal was a response to a proposal made to the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee, which sought to expand instructor syllabi to include more campus resources, she said.
Faculty Senate members said the proposal would take away from the academic purpose of the syllabus. Kostecka said she is suggesting a virtual help desk for students, which would allow faculty members to keep their syllabi focused on academics.