The IU Student Government congressional Student Life Committee decided Tuesday to focus primarily on sexual assault and transportation issues this term.
Committee chair Dominic Thompson spoke to students to understand the challenges they face and said he wanted to address topics that affect everyday students.
“It is more important than ever to start making progress on sexual assault and misconduct and working to erase it from our campus,” Thompson said. “Right now is the time to work on parking because it is one of the things that is crippling our campus.”
Sexual assault and misconduct
Thompson is working with the IU Funding Board to require bystander training for organizations before they can receive additional funds from the board, he said.
The committee is also working on curbing sexual assault and misconduct through the creation of a campaign.
“This is done by helping to get more training on the matter in these organizations,” Thompson said. “We’re also really focused on ensuring that the It’s On Us training that freshmen receive before they come onto campus is really heavily enforced.”
Parking and transportation
Cassiday Moriarity, a member of the Student Life Committee, said the committee is working on policy briefs to accurately understand the status of transportation and parking before going into conversations with administration.
Thompson also spoke of the timeliness of transportation regarding the recent weather.
“We also need to think about the off-campus students, especially when we have storms like we did just a week ago,” he said. “That pushes everyone onto the bus system and leaves so many other students unable to get on the buses because they’re so crowded or because they don’t run on a very good time module, and that leaves a lot of people walking to school in those freezing temperatures.”
Parking is also an issue students are concerned about, Thompson said.
“I haven’t been able to figure out where I’m allowed to park or not,” said Kasey Cassle, an out-of-state student that decided to bring her car with her to IU.
Thompson said that parking is one of the complaints he most hears from students.
“I think the parking rules aren’t very clear about the times and spaces that they apply to,” Cassle said.
Moriarity is working on reaching out to the Residence Hall Association and seeing where their parking goals align because RHA has had conversations about parking and how it affects students, Thompson said.
“Collaboration is really important because it means more student voices that can be heard,” Moriarity said.
Thompson emphasized the need for partnerships as well.
“Coalition building is so important,” Thompson said. “It’s the only way that we can get things done because things don’t get done on campus unless the student body is united.”
