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By Chloe Vincente
The University of Connecticut’s Undergraduate Student Government is establishing a Students’ Task Force on Campus Inclusion in response to students asking for a voice.
“It’s really about bringing people together, overall, and bringing a variety of people together that aren’t normally sitting at the same table,” said USG Student Development Chair Rachel Conboy.
Conboy said the creation of the task force was sparked by students and will therefore consist primarily of students.
“At the end of the day we wanted this committee to create a solution that made everyone feel like they were included on this campus and as a part of this community.”
USG is seeking undergraduate students at large, a graduate student, Greek students, students from each cultural center, an international student, athletes, a veteran or ROTC cadet, one faculty member and one administrator for the committee.
“The biggest question I’ve gotten is, well, what power does this actually have?”
Conboy is confident that people will listen to what the people on the committee have to say.
“They’re going to listen, they’re going to have to listen, because this is very publicly broadcasted. They know what we are doing and it’s a very productive conversation amongst students which I don’t know if we’ve had a lot of that,” Conboy said.
Conboy said USG took an active role in responding to the Title IX issues with UConn, but what really spurred the creation of the task force was concerns with Greek life. She said a lot of people at town hall meetings had strong opinions, but not much really resulted from those meetings.
USG has already gotten a big response from people on campus interested in getting involved.
“Within the first 48 hours, I already had 15 letters in my inbox,” Conboy said.
USG is still looking for letters of interest and accepting them from all students across campus.
Photo credit: Wilbur Cross, University of Connecticut via photopin (license)