Boston University Student Government heard BUnited platform updates centered on addressing on-campus sexual misconduct and concerns with Student Health Services’ gender-affirming healthcare, and a renewed commitment to allocating funds toward local businesses in a meeting Monday night.
The meeting began with platform updates from BUnited, StuGov’s executive board for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.
BUnited ran on three pillars — Uniting Health, Uniting Justice and Uniting Community — and used the Senate meeting to share updates on their progress as the semester draws to a close.
The executive board announced their goals to focus on improving sexual misconduct prevention resources and advocacy for students this past September, and discussed progress made in Monday’s meeting.
Committees within StuGov such as 16,000 Strong have addressed sexual assault on campus through an event centered around consent called F.R.I.E.S, which stands for freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic and specific.
Hessann Farooqi, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and executive vice president, said BUnited is working with Queer Activist Collective, or Q, and SHS to address concerns with improving gender-affirming healthcare at BU.
The meeting went on to discuss the “Uniting Justice” pillar, which seeks to amplify underrepresented voices with the aim of a more equitable student community.
Farooqi said StuGov could begin by allocating some funding toward small local businesses, particularly those owned by women and people of color as those tend to be “the hardest hit” economically by the pandemic.
“Every year, Student Government spends tens of thousands of dollars on all these different things, including merch and food,” Farooqi said. “Instead of spending those dollars on giant multinational corporations, we should spend our money on local businesses here in Boston.”
Nyah Jordan, a senior in COM and student body president, said an important goal under the Uniting Community pillar was fostering community amid the transition back to an in-person campus, adding that events such as this year’s Wellness Challenge were structured around this goal.
“[The Wellness Challenge] focused more on creating more initiatives and workspaces that did bring back the community that we had last year, or provide resources that may not be currently available to students,” she said.
BUnited said they wish to continue fostering community by sponsoring cultural meal events, peer advising and continuing to work with LGBTQ+ organizations on campus.
The meeting ended with an unmoderated caucus. All other presentations and bills were postponed.
