Suffolk’s Student Government Association heard from the Center for Career Equity and Success and discussed racial justice in the Suffolk Athletics at their Nov. 5 meeting.
SGA President Angela El-Jazzar reported to the senate about some of the updates published in The Suffolk Journal last week regarding diversity in athletics.
During the open forum, Class of 2022 Senator Logan Casey brought up concerns he had with the university’s handling of issues regarding diversity in the Suffolk athletics department.
“[Athletics] has initiatives that they are working on to raise diversity in their department, but to me it looks mediocre,” Casey said. “As university students, we are paying a significant amount of money to go here. Frankly, we should expect more.”
Class of 2022 Senator Melissa Contover echoed Casey’s sentiments, calling for women’s basketball Coach Ed Leyden to be fired from his position.
“It’s really easy to not be racist, really easy not to be transphobic,” said Contover. “The fact that this coach is still working for us is a direct reflection on the university.”
Associate Provost and Executive Director of the Center for Career Equity and Success David Merry described the mission of the career center and some of the changes made over the past year.
“Career equity and education and readiness is really central to the Suffolk University 2025 mission,” Merry said. “It’s really exciting to have the support of both the extracurricular activities as well as the faculty and the deans.”
Merry described some of the efforts that the career center is taking to ensure their office is working toward equity and inclusion.
He announced the office is working with the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion to pilot a new ambassador program to promote student education regarding diversity in the workplace.
“We want to start training students around how you can be an agent of change for equity in the workplace, not just to have [diversity] be passive or just be a part of our name,” Merry said.
Class of 2024 Senator Stephen Merrick was appointed as chair of the academics committee.
SGA will not be meeting Thursday in recognition of Veterans Day.
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