Representatives of BU Student Government slates fielded student questions in a town hall meeting Wednesday, as election season continues.
Students asked Executive Board and At-Large running parties how they plan to respond to mental health and student life issues, among other topics.
Oliver Pour, a senior in the College of Communication and the College of Arts and Sciences and StuGov president for the 2020-2021 academic year, began the Question and Answer section of the night.
He asked how slates would increase student engagement, highlighting Splash as an event that could be improved.
CAS sophomore Dhruv Kapadia, representing Fight to BU, spoke about the party’s planned initiative, BU Pride.
“We want to have a weeklong community event highlighting organizations of all different backgrounds, purposes, initiatives in the spring semester,” Kapadia said. “So just when things start to die down in terms of engagement and involvement within the undergraduate student body, we really want to increase it again.”
Mikey Rahmani, a sophomore in the College of General Studies representing Be You, spoke about the need for feedback to determine policy.
“[One student], they recommended we have a second Splash during the semester. It’s a great idea. Did anyone here think of that? Let’s just say the answer is no. That’s the whole point of feedback,” Rahmani said.
Rahmani reemphasized the need for feedback throughout the night as an important aspect of his party’s policies. When asked what the first change Be You would make if elected, Rahmani said the party would “finally listen.”
“That’s the first thing that we’re going to do,” Rahmani said. “For the second, we’re going to finally go around to students, hear what they have to say. Not even about policies, just about listening to them.”
Yeelin Bacchus, a senior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, representing At-Large party Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism, used the question to speak about “wellness that actually feels like wellness,” one of CGSA’s pillars.
“We have something [in CGSA] called a Womb Room. I don’t know if everyone here is familiar with it. But it is the only nap room on campus,” Bacchus said. “We want to introduce more wellness initiatives that are actually, truly subjective and helpful to students, and I think an example of that is more nap rooms.”
Other At-Large parties also spoke about their platforms. The Community Action Party, represented by Jack McGinn, said they would make sure each service organization is given $500 to start with.
IMPACT BU, represented by Ricky Nieto, said they would continue to collaborate with the Queer Activist Collective, or “Q,” to establish a professionally staffed “LGBTQ+ center” on campus.
“We are one of the only campuses that has one [LGBTQ+ center] for faculty but not one for students,” Nieto said.
The LGBTQIA+ Center for Faculty & Staff was established Sept. 2021 and is located at 808 Commonwealth Ave. University Provost Jean Morrison called the center “a locus of support and information” in a Feb. 28 article published in The Daily Free Press.
Parties were then asked how they would assist specifically with Black mental health.
CAS sophomore Dakota Jackson, representing At-Large party The Unity and Social Quality Initiative, said he would continue his work of “establishing that bridge” between different Black social groups.
“We would love to do that with all the other different groups … that may be minorities,” he said. “We’d want to bridge those together as well.”
Navya Kotturu, running for executive vice president with Fight to BU, said she wants to use her experience working with Student Health Services Behavioral Medicine and Wellness and Prevention to “get them to listen to minorities.”
“The first step that we can take here is to educate people, first and foremost, that it’s okay to not be okay,” Kotturu said.
Kotturu said StuGov should work more with the BIPOC Mental Health Collective — which recently hosted a mental health fair — and spoke about the peer counseling program she is currently developing for Fight to BU.
Sandoval spoke about the importance of the individual in discussions of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
“Although we are a big community, we need to focus on the individual and his experience and what he’s going through,” Sandoval said. “Because although the Black community is a whole community, I think each Black individual, each Black student goes through his own experience.”
The candidates will meet again to debate March 22, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., in room 906 of the Photonics Building.
