ASUI passed resolutions encouraging flexibility during election days and bringing awareness to missing and murdered Indigenous people.
To help spur student engagement with local elections, ASUI’s new resolution encourages instructors to allow for greater flexibility in the delivery method of instruction during elections. To ensure the impact of the resolution is widely felt, Sen. Alex Call said that he hopes to see broad participation across colleges when it comes to implementing flexibility during elections.
“(After) talking to my friends that are in STEM fields and other such majors, it sounded like…schedules were much more rigid,” Call said. “I’d really love to see a little bit more cooperation with those in engineering, health classes and other sciences to be a little bit more vigilant and a little bit more lax on voting days.”
ASUI also introduced and passed two resolutions aimed at bringing awareness to Indigenous women and people. The first resolution seeks to recognize April 29 through May 5 as national week of action for missing and murdered Indigenous women and people, with May 5 being recognized as the day of awareness.
“I grew up in a reservation, and growing up I had a lot of friends who were Native American, and this (issue) is something that a lot of my friends had dealt with whether it was their sisters, or their friends or their moms,” Sen. Martha Smith said.
According to Idaho’s 2021 report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons, the rate of missing American Indian and Native Alaskans exceeds the state’s overall average. Among the Idaho Natives that had been reported as missing, 75% were female.
“Indigenous people cannot be the only ones concerned with this issue,” Sen. Briana Navarro said. “We can use our voices and our resources to bring awareness to this issue.”
ASUI also introduced a new resolution Wednesday calling for an investment to be made in a dedicated equity and diversity building on the Moscow campus.
According to the resolution, the hope is to unite the College Assistance Migrant Program, the LGBTQA Office, the Native American Student Center, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Black and African American Cultural Center and the Women’s Center into a consolidated area to account for the growth in student participation within these programs.
“The people running these offices are oftentimes the reason that diverse students choose to stay in school by serving as support systems for their students,” Navarro said. “Some of the best education I have received in my past four years at this university have come from the events and celebrations put on by these different offices.”
Acknowledging the value of having an equity and diversity building, Sen. Cassidey Plum said the university administration may have more pressing issues when it comes to allocating funding for additional buildings on campus.
“There are several other single departments on campus that are in portables such as the Department of Agriculture Education, Leadership and Communications, which is the fastest-growing department in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences,” Plum said, adding that at this stage, there are other pressing matters where university funding is better served.
A final vote for this resolution is expected to be made in the coming week.
Royce McCandless can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @roycemccandless