ASG holds interfaith organization panel, approves student org funding

Miami University’s Associated Student Government (ASG) held a brief panel discussion for faith-based student organizations at its Oct. 19 meeting.

Hannah McCarren, president of Hillel, and Nav Chima, president of the Sikh Student Association and co-chair of the Multifaith Engagement for Transformative Action Collective (META), participated in the panel. Both were invited to collect concerns from their organizations’ members and share them with ASG.

Chima raised concerns common among the Sikh population at Miami, including a lack of Sikh faculty at the university, distrust of the police and a general lack of awareness of Sikh culture.

“Our faculty advisor is non-Sikh, and honestly, just not having that support is a really big concern for a lot of our members,” Chima said.

McCarren discussed the lack of respect shown toward Jewish holidays – particularly in regards to Kosher dining options – and the whitewashing of the Jewish population.

“Our community is not all white – the Jewish people are very diverse in many, many aspects,” McCarren said.

ASG also approved its second round of student organization funding during the meeting.

This round, just more than $103,000 was allocated to 67 different organizations. Four organizations – Miami Close Order Drill Team, HAWKS Peer Health Educators, Soul2Soul A Capella and Korean American Association – were granted more than $5,000 each.

ASG will have three more opportunities for student organization funding, and it has just less than $1,200,000 remaining to allocate.

Later in the meeting, ASG passed a bill to remove the position of Senate Technology Officer from its bylaws. The bill was authored by Parliamentarian Omar Elghazawi.

The Senate Technology Officer was responsible for ensuring all technology in the Senate Chamber, but the position hasn’t been filled in years because other members of senate leadership are sufficiently knowledgeable about the technology.

The bill passed unanimously.

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Finally, ASG elected two senators to the Student Trustees Search Committee.

The committee is responsible for determining which student applicants for Miami’s Board of Trustees (BoT) are sent to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office for final selection.

Senators Ethan Stack, Evan Gates and Eli Davies were nominated to run for the two positions on the committee.

Stack highlighted his experience presenting to the BoT at a community college he attended and also serving on last year’s search committee.

Gates spoke about his experience working with various members of Miami’s administration and said he would seek out candidates who would improve diversity, equity and inclusion on the BoT.

Davies said he was interested in applying for the student trustee position himself before he realized it was only open to Ohio residents, and he said he would ensure the person selected would advocate for out-of-state and international students.

Gates and Davies were elected.

ASG’s next meeting will be on Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Joslin Senate Chamber.

@madphabes

phabymr@miamioh.edu