By Elizabeth Halvorson
Grand Rapids Community College’s Student Alliance (SA) held its March Town Hall meeting on Thursday, March 24 to discuss two allocation requests, recruiting for Student Alliance, mental health needs, and a new College Action Project.
SA acting-President and Communications Director, Becca Klap started the meeting with an overview of the Student Leadership Awards ceremony that was held in the Raider Grill on Thursday, March 17.
“I believe most of you here went to the Student Leadership Awards ceremony or saw the pictures we shared, but it was an amazing event and such a wonderful night,” Klap said.
Klap has taken over the duties of former SA President, Brendan Burke, who resigned Thursday morning.
“I stepped down strictly because I don’t have time,” Burke said. “I am sad that I stepped down but I don’t want to hold back their (the SA team) potential.”
Klap also highlighted that Aracely Marroquin, SA’s External Affairs Director, has been working on a one-stop resource document to combine and categorize all GRCC resources for students.
“Right now, to find the resources available at GRCC, you have to go to different parts of the GRCC webpage and with this document, we’ll have all of the resources in one place,” Klap said. “We’re hoping to establish a link or QR code that can be added to all syllabuses that professors give out at the beginning of classes.
“We are also recruiting for Student Alliance. So if anyone is interested, we’ll be accepting applications until Wednesday, March 30 at midnight,” Klap continued.
In the allocation segment of the meeting, the Native American Student Organization requested $500 to be allocated to demonstrations and performances at the Cultural Festival scheduled for Wednesday, April 13 at 3 p.m. in the Raider Grill.
The Young Democratic Socialists of America student organization requested $2,500 for their upcoming conference in Chicago the first weekend in April. The group of attendees approved their request.
Closing out the meeting, Phoenix Noelle, a faculty member in Workforce Development at GRCC, presented information on CAP (College Action Project) 3.4 which has a focus on equity for the LGBTQ+ community with their number one goal being to establish a paid, full-time LGBTQ+ advocate on staff at GRCC for students and faculty.
“We will move mountains for students,” Noelle said. “We don’t want to make any promises we can’t keep. The student voice is the most powerful thing we have.”
SA’s next town hall is scheduled for Thursday, April 21 at 2 p.m. Click here for more details.
