With elections taking place this week, Salisbury University’s Student Government Association held its annual executive board candidate debate Sunday in which students were very vocal on their concerns toward diversity and inclusion on our campus.
With 13 available positions and 14 candidates, all candidates are running unopposed except for those running for director of marketing and communications. This fact did not stop Salisbury students from questioning the candidates on various concerns toward SGA initiatives.
In address to the initiative towards a better sense of inclusion on campus, vice president candidate Jordan McClung put forth the idea of improving school spirit in aims to better this issue.
“We need to increase the spirit on this campus. The student involvement is just not where we want it to be,” McClung said. “It’s a passion of mine to see this school go to football games, and cheer on the lacrosse team.”
In refute to McClung’s proposal, community activist Vanjalic Tolbert questioned all the members of the board.
“Why is the focus on school spirit when it should be on working on fixing the morale and fixing the real problem?” Tolbert said.
Presidential candidate Devin Neil voiced his view on inclusion and equality on campus, proposing that there is not one simple solution.
“It’s a wicked problem. There’s no one specific answer to solving it,” Neil said. “What’s really going to bring this campus together is seeing commonalities with each other. We are both here because we care about making this community a better place and we have enough passion to come out and do it.”
Senior Donovan Mack, current director of diversity and inclusion, hopes that SGA continues its initiative to promote and push inclusion on campus.
“Some things that we can work on is making sure that we’re reaching out to people as well as knowing what they care about,” Mack said. “I think that sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone so I think that promoting that for diversity and inclusion is the best option.”
Community activist Tolbert proposed her idea that the solution to inequality on campus and worldwide is speaking out on the issues at hand.
“SGA needs to be more vocal about the problems that actually plague this campus,” Tolbert said. “You cannot sweep things under the rug just because you want to be politically correct – if it’s happening, we need to talk about it.”
Voting for the SGA executive positions takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at select polling stations up until Friday, April 13.
Featured image of candidate for Director of Academic Affairs Tram Nguyen speaking at the SGA debate Sunday.
By CAROLINE STREETT
Staff writer
Featured photo: Haley Dick image.