The Undergraduate Student Association (USA) senate meeting on Tuesday began with guest speaker and new Director of Campus Ministry, Spencer Liechty updating members about Campus Ministry and its upcoming events. He made sure to note that all of Campus Ministry’s events are open to everyone on campus: you do not need to be Catholic or subscribe to any particular faith. Kairos will be held this fall on Nov. 4 through 6. Campus Ministry will be holding a winter service trip to Wheeling, West Virginia over winter break, from Jan. 7 through 13. Liechty noted to look out for other trips and retreats for the spring semester.
This was the first week that the newly elected freshmen senators attended the USA meeting. They introduced themselves and were sworn into the senate. Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations Julia Slazyk updated members about the website for appeals and directed all students and student organizations to use Griffnet when making appeals.
The SPB Representative announced that Fall Fest will be held on Oct. 1, and the Sustainability Chair announced two more campus cleanups to be held on Oct. 15 and Nov. 5. The new liaisons for library services, ITS and facilities and the Griff Center were also introduced at Tuesday's meeting.
USA voted to sign onto the Jesuit Student Government Alliance Youth Voter contract and will be working with other Jesuit schools around the country to promote voter registration and access at these colleges.
To close out the meeting, President Jahare Hudson addressed the senate. He spoke about the factions and mistrust that have surrounded USA in the past few years, and said that, “USA’s foundation needs to be broken and reestablished again. And it needs to be built on love and compassion for one another.”
President Hudson hopes to achieve this during his time as the leader of USA, and closed his address by having everyone hold hands and remember that “we are all humans first.”