LSA Student Government hosted a meeting Wednesday evening to discuss resolutions relating to the Sexual Assault and Awareness Center and increasing resources for transfer students.
The body passed a resolution co-sponsoring SAPAC’s Healthy Relationship Dialogues, aiming to create conversation and advocacy around sexual assault that occurs on campus. With the passing of this resolution, LSA SG will join the current list of co-sponsors for SAPAC, specifically by co-sponsoring and helping to advertise a series of dialogues toward the end of March to help raise awareness toward sexual assault.
LSA junior Nicholas Fadanelli, LSA SG general counsel, explained that many sexual assaults on campus may not be made public, and highlighted the importance of LSA SG’s role in creating conversations about these issues.
“The idea with the healthy relationships dialogues is that the majority of sexual assaults that happen on campus happen to individuals from non-dominant groups, and their stories usually don’t really get shared or spoken about,” he said.
Following this resolution, a resolution to help fund the SAPAC Survivor Care Fund also passed. This fund is designed to help students who are survivors of sexual assault by providing them with hotel rooms, new door locks in the case that the survivor still lives with the perpetrator, and other necessities such as food and clothing.
LSA SG has sponsored the Survivor Care Fund in the past. Wednesday night, the body approved the continuation of allocating funds and a donation of $2,000. $2,500 was allocated to the health dialogues.
Rep. Allison Berry, an LSA sophomore, explained the importance of the resolutions toward SAPAC, specifically when providing necessities for those students who have experienced sexual assault or other forms of harassment.
“I think that the meeting today really added a human component that we kind of missed when we’re sitting in this room just voting on a number,” she said. “Every penny has been spent from this fund every semester since they’ve had it, so there’s always a need, and if it’s there it will be spent.”
Representatives also discussed a resolution to turn the current Transfer Student Initiatives Task Force into a full committee to improve resources, and allow for a smoother integration for transfer students into the University of Michigan.
LSA senior Reid Klootwyk said the task force currently works on a per-semester basis and because it is not a continuous project, is unable to fully provide resources necessary for transfer students.
“The transfer student resolution would create a fully formed committee in LSA Student Government that will continue to last and make change for transfer students,” he said. “We’ve found that the projects that we’re working on, the momentum that we currently have, needs to continue on beyond a semester.”
This specific resolution falls under the category of new business, and was tabled to be voted on next week.