Last spring, the current IU Student Government executive branch leaders ran on a campaign platform entitled ‘Vision.’
The platform identified eight focal points in which they wanted to make improvements or address issues. These eight points are equity and inclusion, student engagement and transparency, greek life, health and well-being, student life, academic affairs, sustainability and government relations.
One way the IUSG leaders plan to improve student engagement and transparency is by organizing town hall meetings.
“The goal is to get to students who maybe don’t know about student government and don’t know how the policies that we work on affect them as a student,” said Drew Ficociello, chief of staff.
These meetings will be conducted at different locations around campus in order to reach different audiences, said Matt Stein, the student body vice president.
“We don’t expect the students to come to us," Stein said. "We want to go to the students and where they are."
Another task mentioned on their platform is amending the Indiana Lifeline Law.
The platform is looking into organizational amnesty. Currently, the Indiana Lifeline Law only protects the person whocalls 911 in order to get medical help for a person who is under the influence. Adding an organizational amnesty policy would extend protection to anyone else at the event where the call was made.
This possible change was tested by extending an organizational amnesty policy to Greek organizations during Little 500 week last school year.
“We saw success with it,” Stein said. “We saw people more willing to engage with authorities when situations arose.”
In order to determine the focuses of their platform, they consulted with over 40 stakeholders on campus.
“We took what they said and literally wrote policy out of what they said,” Isabel Mishkin, the said student body president.
Stein said it will not be possible for the executive branch of IUSG to complete every task outlined in their platform because of the structure of IUSG and changing student opinions. Sometimes roadblocks occur and ideas need to change or be amended.
“We’re not wizards,” Stein said.
Student involvement and interaction is crucial to accomplishing goals set by the campaign or looking toward better solutions that work for the student body, Ficociello said.
“This can’t come from us,” Ficociello said. “It’s gotta come from the students.”
