In the past few months, sweeping changes have been made across U.S. college campuses. Now more than ever, students don’t feel supported or valued at the schools they attend. Uncertainty and unpredictability weigh heavily on the minds of students like you and me alike. Former President Barack Obama stated, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Emma Bell is running for the chair of the Student Government Assembly, and taking the initiative to be a voice for us students in these unprecedented times. She is the type of leader who will and is ready to take charge.
At NYU and many other universities, it has become taboo to openly endorse and promote diversity, equity and inclusion program initiatives. However, the SGA’s role is to be the voice of the student body. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Speaking up and amplifying the voices of everyday students like you and me is something Bell isn’t afraid to do if elected. She has been actively working on an NYU Reparations Committee, which was established to evaluate NYU’s historical role in the transatlantic slave trade and address the university’s history of racism and slave labor. With this election, our voices and our history as students of NYU won’t be silenced, rewritten or erased.
Bell has been unwavering in her advocacy for food issues at NYU that often go unnoticed by many. She has actively been pushing for improvements in the Swipe it Forward program to allow students to use a donated meal swipe more than once a week. With the right push, the population of students at NYU who need these services will have a true ally speaking up for student needs.
For New Yorkers and international students alike, Bell is here to amplify our voices when people are actively trying to silence them. She has already been diligently working with current SGA chair Angela Chou to get reduced MTA fares for NYU’s commuter population and additional NYU bus routes to major transport hubs such as Grand Central Terminal, Whitehall Terminal and Penn Station. Bell recognizes that the city of New York is our campus, and transportation shouldn’t be another barrier to the education we are worthy of. She is also aware of the incoming housing crisis which international students who can not return to their home countries will face and she’s addressing these concerns in the SGA’s Basic Needs Task Force. Bell has boots on the ground and listens to what students need in these uncertain times on campus.
Jesse Jackson highlighted how we need to “run faster — never give up, never surrender and rise against the odds.” Bell’s statement of purpose is to “persistently amplify student voices.” Bell has displayed that she is ready to make our voices heard in our student government to help us rise against the odds, that is why she is the only choice for SGA chair.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact Dymond Walker at [email protected].