By CORIE LYNN
Wednesday and Thursday marked FHSU’s Student Government Association elections. During the elections, students vote for peers to represent them in the Student Senate.
The elections also allow students to vote for their new student body president and vice president.
For the first time in four years, that race was contested. During Thursday night’s SGA meeting, it was revealed that senior Mark Faber and junior Ryan Stanley were elected as president and vice president, respectively.
In recent weeks, the Student Senate has had many discussions about diversity on campus, leading both election tickets to address the topic of diversity in their platforms.
The topic of diversity also encouraged the SGA to invite FHSU student Megan Roth to speak at Thursday’s meeting about her experience at the university as an Asian-American woman.
Roth began her time by saying how saddened she has been by the discrimination against Asian-Americans that she has seen in the news.
She said she is disheartened by the way she has seen people lumped into a single group when the continent of Asia is made up of numerous countries and ethnicities.
“We shouldn’t be grouping them together,” Roth said.
She also addressed the experiences of international students on the FHSU campus, stating those she knew felt they were unable to communicate with their peers or welcome to share their culture.
Roth hopes to address this through a new Asian-American club on campus, which would be open to any student at FHSU.
“I want it to focus on educating one another on the identities of Asian-Americans,” she said.
Roth said she has not personally experienced discrimination on campus but knows others have and that international students do not feel heard. She wants to bring greater cultural awareness to FHSU.
Additionally, during the night’s meeting, the executive staff and one committee gave short reports.
One such report came from the Community Relations and Involvement Committee, which said in light of the discussion of diversity and awareness at FHSU, it proposed microaggression training and a cultural celebration for the following year.
During Open Forum, Sen. Will Barfield stated that, though they were not present at the meeting, he had invited freshmen living at Victor E. Village to speak.
According to Barfield, the freshmen had approached him to tell him they felt targeted by university police while spending time in the lounge on their floor.
He told the Student Senate the police were allegedly taking the students’ personal items when they briefly left, such as when they went to buy pizza on the first-floor lobby.
According to Barfield, no other resident in the building has had this issue.
Following this time, the Student Senate read one new bill then moved into announcements. The meeting then concluded.