Call To Action hosted a Q-and-A session for students, faculty and staff to see where the group is headed in the future.
Updates for each demand in the group’s action plan were made since its last meeting in December. The group met in the Math Sciences Building on Tuesday night.
“I think people didn’t think we were doing anything and we wanted to tell [the student body] what we’ve done since we last met,” said Kevin Lewis, president of the Black Student Union and Call To Action member.
Call To Action sent the administration an action plan in December of what they wanted implemented quickly when certain racial situations occur at the University. The demands included creating a multicultural and ethnic student center, establishing divisions of culture curriculum, increasing student organization funds and implementing the action plan, Lewis said.
“We have met with multiple [members of] administration, such as Barbara Waddell, Steven Krakoff and Jill Carr to discuss each demand to see where we are with each one,” Lewis said.
Some issues that were brought up during the meeting included determining whether the issues brought up during the last meeting were still relevant, planning where the location of the multicultural and ethnic student center would be, judging whether graduation would be delayed and discussing why crime on campus isn’t highlighted as much.
“These solutions and [plans] are broad, but we want them to be broad because we don’t know yet where it could be in the future,” Lewis said during the meeting.
Because there is no set timeline for each demand to be met, audience members were concerned if there isn’t a timeline set soon, it may be overlooked.
This is something Call To Action is concerned about as well, and brought up to each administration member when discussing plans for the demands. Because there is not a set answer for each demand yet, the administration is planning it by a “case-by-case basis,” said Juan Pimiento, Latino Student Union president and Call To Action member.
“They want to get it as accurate as possible with the right answers,” Pimiento said. “Ultimately, we want to make sure everything is correct and reliable before we set a timeline … so we don’t fail the students and they trust the system.”
Even though no one from Call To Action is graduating this year, Lewis said he wants more younger people to join to keep what the group started and to encourage the administration to follow through.
“We know some of these demands will take years,” Lewis said.
Tobias Spears, assistant director of LGBT Programs, was pleased with the turnout of the meeting.
“I commend you all because it seems as though the group has grown since the last meeting,” Spears said during the meeting.
