This year’s Student Government elections focused heavily on diversity and accusations that SG does not do enough to promote minority organizations on campus.
During the March 3 debate, “Restart” presidential candidate Kendra Davis said SG needs to be more inclusive when allocating funding to student organizations, specifically naming minority groups such as the Black Student Union, LSU NAACP and Spectrum, which she said are overlooked.
Also during the debate, former vice president Hannah Knight defended SG’s outreach, saying the organization has reached out to all University student groups on campus, but later clarified that SG leaders were in the process of reaching and had not completed their efforts at that time.
SG assistant director of organizational outreach Stephanie Brewster acknowledges that SG outreach, on the whole, has been lacking in past years. Since the debate, she has finished reaching out to every campus organization via email to inform them of ways SG can help them receive funding for their events.
Although she reached out to every group on campus, Brewster said only about 40 percent responded.
In the past, SG has funded events for several minority organizations, some more than once. According to a spreadsheet from former SG Director of Finance Wesley Davis, SG’s Programming, Support and Initiatives Fund committee has funded some groups consecutively — specifically BSU, Spectrum, the African American Cultural Center and the International Student Association, although the amounts were unavailable.
Wesley acknowledged PSIF is not a well-known resource for student groups, and he wants that to change.
“We’ve seen a good bit of minority groups come to PSIF, but it’s always the same groups,” he said. “PSIF is our best-kept secret, and I don’t like that.”
President Zack Faircloth and vice president Lindsey Landry said SG hasn’t been the most accessible resource for minority organizations, and they hope to challenge that norm in their future administration. They said one of the things their administration will do differently than previous presidencies is make sure SG is a voice for all students.
Faircloth promised SG will promote University diversity by making it the job of an executive staff member.
“What we plan to do specifically is make the Organizational Outreach position a senior staff position,” he said. “Our utmost priority is to reach out to organizations … their whole goal will be to bridge that gap.”
Faircloth also said he has reached out to LSU NAACP president Monturios Howard to begin solidifying SG’s relationship with minority organizations on campus.
Howard was approved as an SG senior executive staff member on Wednesday along with the rest of the newly-elected president’s appointees.
Howard said he believes one of the problems causing the divide between SG and minority organizations is the lack of minority representation in SG itself.
“This semester has been a lot better in terms of outreach, but we’re not going to be silent about it,” Howard said. “We have to bring everyone to the table, both leaders and ordinary students on campus.”
Howard said he also believes this past campaign season spoke volumes about the need for “those uncomfortable conversations” about diversity on campus.
However, many minority students still don’t feel SG does all it can to reach out to them.
BSU president Destinee Merida said there are many small minority groups that get overlooked in all aspects of campus life.
“I think, too regularly, underrepresented groups get passed up,” Merida said in an email. “There are more black groups than BSU and NAACP and more minority groups than black ones.”
Both SG leaders and minority organization leaders agree that although this year sparked a much-needed conversation about outreach and forming connections with campus groups, there is still much more work to be done.
“We can’t just fund minority groups and go, ‘Oh, we’ve done our part,’” Wesley said. “It’s an ongoing process. You have to reach out to groups every year.”
Amid criticisms, SG makes new minority outreach push
April 21, 2016
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