I recently attended the last meeting of the semester of Student Assembly. At this meeting there were a variety of resolutions passed, some of very suspicious merit. But given my last post regarding diversity, it has come to my attention that some people may misconstrue the Cornell Review for simply attacking the Student Assembly. As such, this post will both speak against some of the initiatives that have been passed as well as give credit where credit is due.
One of the major resolutions discussed was the expansion of the Students Helping Students grant. I applaud the Student Assembly for making this grant more available. It provides more students with privately donated funding to help students in their time of need. This initiative also seems to provide more assistance to a wider variety of students, whom the university would be unable to help. As such, this is not only a very beneficial resolution for the university, but it is also a program more students should be aware of. Another initiative I would like to promote is resolution 22, regarding a more comprehensive health and safety information sessions during Orientation Week. This is a very useful program that the university should be more involved with and it is a relatively simple process that helps the majority of students. Again, my hat goes off to Student Assembly for making sure these initiatives are discussed and passed.
However, Student Assembly did discuss a particularly suspicious issue, that being the social justice requirement. Student Assembly is currently working towards requiring every student to take a class that involves social justice. This line of thought is particularly troublesome because I believe most students are unaware that this is occurring, and thus Student Assembly may be pursing an initiative that most students really don’t want. In any case, the social justice requirement is the embodiment of political correctness and liberal bias in higher education institutions. What is social justice? If it is programs that involve government or otherwise systematic correcting of social behavior, then this is a particularly dangerous and questionable program. Furthermore, to force students to take more classes that will provide either no benefit or even harm to their education is a goal Student Assembly certainly should not be spearheading. As such, I would ask every student to evaluate the work they do at the university? If they dislike a particular aspect of their education, then they should question who is responsible because it may be something you can prevent.
With any institution that has power, there is bound to be beneficial and harmful actions put forward. As a student journalist, it is my job to highlight the damaging initiatives for the students. But there should always be room for pointing out the good that any organization does. And it is my hope that the Student Assembly will recognize this as well.
