Be Happy, increase campus wellness student happiness
Demand greater student input in the new sexual assault policy
Create a safe social space for all students
Better racial inclusivity
Address mental health issues through initiatives such as nap space to reduce stress.
Have Faith in our institution
Revamp Issue Action Forces to centralize the UC’s efforts on big discussion on campus and include UC outsiders.
Students vote on agenda items for the meeting with President Faust.
Create HoCo-UC monthly meeting to increase collaboration with HoCo
Increase transparency in student funding application process
Demand greater student input in the new sexual assault policy
- Advocate for affirmative consent and demand greater student input as the University decides on the new sexual assault policy.
- The current policy defines sexual misconduct more narrowly than our peer institutions, and that could prevent victims of sexual misconduct from attaining justice. According to Professor Alison Johnson, who leads the committee of university members to update the FAS sexual assault policy, students overwhelmingly support affirmative consent in every meeting she hosts. The UC should be a strong advocate for this student opinion - “yes means yes.” UC adopted the position of supporting affirmative consent through a previous referendum question, and we have to push harder for affirmative consent to become a University policy. Happy has been attending meetings on the new sexual assault policy and reaching out to leaders of Our Harvard Can Do Better about how to address this issue. Happy and Faith are fighting for affirmative consent in every single meeting we have with relevant administrators, host forums that collect student inputs, and demand more student representation in the committee that makes recommendation to formulate the new sexual assault policy.
Create a safe social space for all students
- We take all the same classes, for the most part, but where we go on a Friday night can be a divisive issue about our school. There should be a place any student can go for parties. Faith has been working with students outside the UC to push for an inclusive social space. She has been meeting with Dean Khrurana and relevant administrators. We are demanding a social space that is inclusive of all genders.
Better racial inclusivity
- Ask for a multicultural Center: From “I, Too, Am Harvard” campaign asking for greater voice for African American on campus, to the University’s delayed response to the email threat that targeted Asian American students on campus, we are asking for a Multicultural Center to demonstrate the University’s commitment to welcome students of color on this campus. All of our places for minority students, whether in terms of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, are underground. The Women’s Center is in the basement of Canaday; the LGBT office is in the basement of Ticknor Lounge. Yale first got students a cultural house-Af Am house-in the 60s. As a result, because the Smith Campus Center is at the stage of deciding what to use the center for, for future Harvard students to benefit from the center, we have to ask the administration now.
Address mental health issues through initiatives such as nap space to reduce stress.
- UC should seek to involve SMHLs, Room 13, and other relevant groups to raise awareness on campus. Faith believes we should have same “Survivor” conversations we have with other serious diseases with mental health.
- Nap space initiative: Happy has been pushing for a nap space in the UC Student Life Committee to address the mental health, sleep deprivation and stress.
Have Faith in our institution
Revamp Issue Action Forces to centralize the UC’s efforts on big discussion on campus and include UC outsiders.
- As the representative of student voice on campus, the UC should take a more active role in leading big discussion on campus such as the new sexual assault policy. We are centralizing UC’s efforts on big topic discussions.
- We want to involve student leaders outside the UC to join our task forces: sexual assault policy, Divest Harvard, and other referendum questions
- UC reps serve as liaisons to big campaigns on campus by attending meetings of the campaigns as a requirement for committee meeting.
- Regular meeting of these task forces which include UC reps and student leaders outside the UC to increase their presence on campus.
Students vote on agenda items for the meeting with President Faust.
- Have you ever wondered what the meeting with President Faust was about? Now we are asking YOU to decide on that agenda. You can decide the agenda. Two weeks before our semester meeting with President Faust, we are reaching out to YOU students to ask you what you want us to bring to President Faust. We will suggest a list of agenda items to bring to President Faust, but we want YOUR input and you will rank these items. The UC will provide you with a list of items we think would be worth bringing to President Faust and hear your thoughts.
Create HoCo-UC monthly meeting to increase collaboration with HoCo
- The Eliot HoCo budget issue surfaced the disconnect and distrust between UC and HoCo
- Start monthly HoCo-UC meetings to seek parnership opportunities
- Happy and Faith have spoken with a few HoCo chairs. We reached the conclusion that UC and HoCo has to first establish trust and communication. We will send one UC rep to each HoCo meeting to briefly update HoCo on initiatives that the UC has been working on and to get input from the input.
Increase transparency in student funding application process
- One of the most direct ways that the UC supports students is through giving out funding to student organizations. Happy and Faith have heard many students expressed concern that the process is not very explicit. As a result, we will streamline the process and create a tutorial to make application instructions more explicit.