By Brandon Iracks-Edelin
Staff Writer
Student Government Association (SGA) has been focused on building a culture of proactivity versus reactivity on issues such as sexual assault, mental health wellness, different forms of discrimination and hopes to empower students to voice their concerns.
We have been working with students, faculty, and administration to develop a more inclusive environment for our community. We worked with common book committee and administration to bring in Kiese Laymon, who did a reading from his book, Heavy: An American Memoir, that included a Q&A afterwards about the importance of race and language.
This year, our main project “Dear Sewanee” is launching after Thanksgiving break to provide a platform for students to have dialogue across differences about a variety of issues of discrimination and division both on and off campus. The Wick will host the Walk of Shame on December 2 to raise awareness about slut shaming and rape culture on college campuses.
SGA, along with some of the Greek community, co-sponsored The Mad Lab Haunted House, which was spearheaded by Gamma Sigma Phi and the Community Engagement House. The Haunted House was fantastic and we raised more than $1,000 in a single night for hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
We also hosted the Dynamic Duo Olympics and Hype Hour to end Spirit Week. The Dynamic Duo Olympics were a fundraising initiative for survivors of domestic violence abuse. For Spirit Week, we encouraged students to participate in the different themes for each day. A few of the themes were Halloween, Twin Day, and Hype Hour, which consisted of fun and games and a stellar performance by the Tiger Girls.
We want to have fun events and encourage campus to tackle issues that our students are concerned about. We are looking to forward partner more with the Greek community with charity events, Dear Sewanee dialogues, and making improvements on campus as well.