ASSU President Michael Cruz ’12 and Vice President Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ’13 are set to introduce the ASSU Executive Community Board this year, a new body designed to better address issues of diversity and tolerance on campus. The organizational chart on their website places the new Community Board on the same level as the traditional Executive Cabinet.
“The main reason for the change is the fact that diversity/tolerance is an important issue, but ASSU has had a hard time producing results,” wrote Emma Ogiemwanye ’12, ASSU executive chief of staff, in an email to The Daily. “The hope is that it will be 1) a forum to discuss issues and 2) have a deliverable this year.”
Such a deliverable, she said, would involve the use of ASSU resources to relieve the strain on communities organizing numerous programs and initiatives.
The Community Board will consist of a group of Community Action Representatives (CARs). In order to encompass a broad definition of “community,” any community that applied for a position on the new Board will be represented.
According to an open letter on the Executive’s website, among the represented groups are the Queer/LGBT community, the women’s community, the religious/faith communities and various ethnic communities, such as the Native American, Latino/Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander and Black communities.
A new position, the chair of communities, will be created under the new board. Along with the chair of student life, the chair of communities will serve as the primary liaison between the Community Board and the Executive Cabinet. The two chairs will attend both bodies’ meetings.
Community Board meetings will be held once a week and will have two main goals, Ogiemwanye said. The first of these goals is to share what CARs are working on in their respective communities. A second objective is discussing sensitive issues related to diversity and tolerance and generating “innovative ways” these issues can be addressed in the Stanford Community.
More specifically, these issues might include advocating on behalf of the “first generation community,” opening up new community centers and forging a stronger connection between student-athletes and the ASSU, Ogiemwanye stated. She emphasized, however, that the Community Action Representatives would have significant input in determining the committee’s activities.
Ogiemwanye also mentioned the Executive’s hope that, in addition to helping the Stanford communities manage their variety of initiatives, ASSU resources will be able to facilitate integrated projects between different communities.
Applications for the Community Board were due by this past Tuesday and more details about the board will be released in the coming weeks.