Administrators, faculty and students addressed the concerns of underrepresented portions of the student body Wednesday evening at the President's Inclusion Forum.
Focusing on various issues that had been brought up to administrators, speakers discussed what was being done to address those issues. Structured as a moderated dialogue, the forum gave students the opportunity to air their personal experiences and concerns in a respectful environment.
Communication between students and faculty is vital to instigate policy changes. Student Body President Jonathan Kaufman said that he hopes for "a lot of insight and perspective" in the discussion and that students "have the opportunity to share what they think." Student Government's presence at the forum was important to him.
"We generally advise administration for a variety of purposes for students and advocate on behalf of the students, so we're here to learn as much as anybody is," Kaufman said.
The forum was put together so the president and other administrators could hear from students, especially those who are underrepresented. It responded to the 2020 Vision demands and their letter to Pastides from the protest in November. The letter addressed portions of the demands for 2020 Vision and made the visionaries' purpose known.
"We have yet again taken it upon ourselves to enact change at our university," the letter says. The visionaries hope that some of these changes would include mandatory diversity training for faculty and staff and an expansion of the budget for Office of Multicultural Student Affairs.
These concerns prompted the administration to create a forum where students could pose questions and hear directly from the offices in charge of those concerns.
"We want to present you this evening with an update of what we have done," Pastides said in his opening statement. "I can tell you right off the bat that you will probably be pleased with some of the progress and not pleased maybe with all of the progress that yet needs to be made."
The forum opened multiple doors to policy changes being enacted. Second-year political science student Megan Taylor was with 2020 Vision when they protested and thinks the forum was successful.
"Obviously everyone showed that there's a lot of passion for these issues; everyone was willing to listen to the responses and to the questions," Taylor said.
The room contained a broad spectrum of the student body, which allowed for a broad spectrum of concerns to be addressed. They emphasized the history of the Horseshoe and the plans to change the signs in order to highlight that history. Students also emphasized the importance of what student diversity could gain from the changes. The forum also discussed gender neutral accommodations, disability accessibility concerns and mental health options available to students.
"I'd like to see a lot of transparency," Taylor said, "and a lot of clear plans and paths ... so that we can all sort of be aware of how this work is being done and that it's being done in a responsible manner." She emphasized how these things would give students more confidence in what is happening among the administration.
Expressing his own core values, Pastides said, "Tolerance is not what this university wants. (It wants) inclusiveness."
The forum addressed concerns already being handled by the administration and opened many new ones up for discussion. With plans to host more forums in the future, university officials hope to continue in the process of representing the diversity of the student body.