ENGAGE Slate

Read our statement below supporting UChicago Without Borders's recent campaign. We're ready to help them push admin to protect and uplift community members of all immigration statuses.

ENGAGE Statement on ICE Decisions ENGAGE STATEMENT ON ICE DECISIONS We forcefully condemn the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) decisions that seek to forbid international students from studying in the U.S, They are only the newest in an ever-lengthening chain of xenophobic actions. Prior to the July 14 par...

We're so proud to support UChicago Without Borders's petition to make UChicago a sanctuary campus and add substantial protections for undocumented community members. We met with organizers last night to strategize ways to best support this campaign. We've already signed their petition. If each one of you signs, they'll blow past their goal of 1,000 signatures by midnight.
Let's make admin commit to protecting our *entire* community. We'll be issuing a formal statement on the importance of this effort soon.

https://www.facebook.com/UCWithoutBorders/posts/122291306231764

Read the petition: https://tinyurl.com/yxezg4df
Sign the petition: https://tinyurl.com/y2z4gz9d

Thank you so much for your support! Let's keep up the momentum; the petition is going to admin TOMORROW!

Read our full petition here: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1k2ypCLsJZ0KoO5G9yNId2VUvyia6EdE8SxR7P7hDAYw/mobilebasic

Demand sanctuary at UChicago here: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttps://forms.gle/7v5PEiG1cYuKmtvZ8%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1596056196700000%26amp;usg%3DAOvVaw0-2rFaOsjYlA6t9UKZQmpE&sa=D&ust=1596056196891000&usg=AFQjCNErCSozFXJZKSoCOZplPZesGUZDTw

Image description: black, blue and red graphic stating our goal number of signatures for today (600), current number of signatures (819) and goal for tonight (1000)

Hey y'all! Are you bored over the summer and interested in helping impact admin's decisions about reopening in the fall? Don't worry, the application for the ad hoc COVID-19 SG Committee is still open! The deadline for your application is June 30th (tomorrow!!) at 11:59 PM CST. The application takes 15 minutes. What are you waiting for??

Apply here:

COVID-19 SG Committee ENGAGE Slate is a part of the administration's COVID-19 Student Advisory Committee, which provides input on its pandemic plan for Autumn 2020. To ensure that we can best represent the student body, we are announcing the creation of an ad-hoc COVID-19 SG Committee. The purpose of this committee is to...

See below for our official statement on the recent anti-Black police violence. We're here for you.

Resources and Ways to Take Action (Chase Leito): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KX4vB7LF-pRaH2mBAoA6PfTGL6D86XJ0VrixZL9-4YU/edit?usp=sharing

"Right to Grieve" Email Campaign (Tyler Okeke, Noah Tesfaye, Bianca Simons, Julie Jaipati, Daniel Harris): https://www.facebook.com/events/249894566111236

Bail Funds/Legal Help by City (anon): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X4-YS3vFn5CLL9QtJSU0xqmTh_h8XilXgOqGAjZISBI/preview

When we announced our candidacy for Executive Slate, we wanted you to elect the most experienced and qualified advocates on the ballot so you could have a seat at the table. We believe we were that choice.

Today, we’re excited to begin this journey with you. We were determined to finish this race, and we are proud to have finished strong.

Our slate is made up of more than just us three. We want to extend our thanks to some specific individuals, without whom ENGAGE would not have been possible.

To Itzel Velázquez, thank you for managing our campaign and guiding us every step of the way. A big thanks to Yena Kim for going above and beyond on your outstanding graphic design work. And to Vaughan Collins, Kimika Padilla, and Ridgley Knapp, thank you for your powerful endorsements. Your faith in us means everything.

Thank you to our mentors for pushing us to run, and thank you to each of our supporters for believing in our mission.

A special thank you to everyone else who gave us a chance, those who we brainstormed with, and the ones who encouraged us to keep going.

Lastly, thank you to the other slates that ran. You had a vision for a better UChicago that resonated with voters. We know how much courage it takes to put your ideas and characters out there, and it definitely pushed us to work our hardest.

We know that the last week has been intense, distressing, and overwhelming for the UChicago community, especially survivors. Our community has a lot of healing to do. We want to be part of that process. Going forward, we’ll be in conversation with PSA and SAAP to figure out how we can best support survivors. If anyone needs access to resources on mental health or sexual misconduct, you can find them at the bottom of this post.

We stayed in this race for the same reason that we ran. As a team, we believed we had the necessary resolve and experience to lead our campus. We stand by that. In the coming year, we hope you will look to our accomplishments as proof of our commitment to all students. This starts with helping administrators develop a robust COVID-19 plan for the fall. This means holding RSOs—and ourselves—accountable through mandatory, in-person, sexual misconduct prevention training. This means giving marginalized students institutional power through the Committee on Marginalized Student Affairs. And this means progress bars on our website, so you can keep track of these platform planks and more.

We’re ready to work towards our plan for a better UChicago. We hope you’ll engage with us and get involved in Student Government. We’re prepared to engage with administrators and put you on their doorsteps. And we’re excited to engage with you at every stop along the way. Thank you for voting ENGAGE.

Signed,
Raven Rainey, President-elect of the Student Association
Myles Hudson, Vice President-elect of Student Affairs
Alex Levi, Vice President-elect of Administration
———————
Mental Health Resources: https://lean0n.me/uchicago
Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Support: https://tinyurl.com/saapresources

Mental Health | Student Health and Counseling Services | The University of Chicago The University of Chicago is a private, nondenominational, culturally rich and ethnically diverse coeducational research university located in Hyde Park, Chicago.

CW: sexual misconduct
To our community:

We have been made aware of recent sexual misconduct allegations against ENGAGE Slate. Below is a statement on this subject from Myles, our candidate for Vice President of Student Affairs.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GvGr7V4zn1R5HeiF0GEBGvmIEscHvkt9NzGbXbOaulQ/edit?usp=sharing

We are excited to endorse Vaughan Collins for Graduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees !

After an extensive conversation with them, we were greatly impressed by their passion and commitment to support not only graduate students, but all students at the University of Chicago. As a first year student at SSA, they bring a commitment to supporting marginalized students on campus through empathy and advocacy. Joining with GSU, UChicago for Fair Tuition, and Gender Q, we believe that Vaughan will be an excellent Graduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees next school year and hope students will also support them.

As Liaison, Vaughan will inform trustees about important issues that students care about like GSU recognition, tuition, and cultural centers. Vaughan’s previous history of working with administrators during their undergraduate program allows them to be successful in this position. Additionally, by working with executive slate, we will find ways to expand the role of Liaison to bring about more meaningful change.

Overall, their commitment to not only work with important organizations on campus, but every graduate school’s student government shows how much they care about student voices. Vaughan will be an excellent Liaison to the Board of Trustee.

Like their page:
https://www.facebook.com/VaughanForGradLiaison/

Visit their website to learn more:
https://vaughankcollins.wixsite.com/mysite

Voting Starts soon! All students currently enrolled, looking at you 4th years, can vote for Executive slate and the 2
Liaisons! Graduate students, make sure you vote for Vaughan, they are more than qualified for the job!

Meet the ENGAGE Slate!

𝐖𝐡𝐨?
Raven Rainey, running for President

𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭?
Raven is a third year in The College majoring in Political Science and minoring in Art History. She spent most of this year in Edinburgh, Scotland, studying Brexit and Scottish Independence as an exchange student at the University of Edinburgh.

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐬?
Raven has a voice and is not afraid to use it. She is great at starting inclusive conversations. This is the first step in getting anything done at UChicago. Change starts with conversation. She is more than ready to start with tough questions. She focuses on bringing more people to the table and getting their input. Together they can create something that is better than an individual thought.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐆 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬?
In Raven's first year she helped lay the groundwork of the Emergency Fund. With other members, she presented to SG how the organization would work and if it could begin releasing applications. After that, she worked on different fundraisers to support the EF. Later she focused on improving the EF’s infrastructure alongside the Finance Board Chair, ensuring rules were in place to ensure the organization would continue to run.
Her second year, she spent the year working on the Emergency Fund’s Spring Anthology, a showcase celebrating marginalized student voices. She met with the administrators of Logan to discuss the use of the Penthouse. The showcase was a success, with several student performers and awards presented to student champions.

𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝?
Hunting for Nessie in Loch Ness.

A huge thank you to Ridge Knapp, current Liaison to the Board of Trustees, for your endorsement for ENGAGE. In his own words,

"In a year with the most slates I've ever seen, all vying for the right to fight for students during this once-in-a-lifetime crisis, I'm happy to lend my backing to the Engage Slate and support Raven, Myles, and Alex in their campaign for Student Government.

I trust that the three of them will use the connections they already have with admin, with students, and with the myriad wings of student government to make manageable, constructive, and long-term changes for the good of our school and student body. I've sat alongside Myles as he questioned Provost Lee about when and how spring quarter would be affected by the coronavirus. I've watched Alex fight in College Council to make this campus more sustainable – and I know that he won't let administrators use our absence from campus to roll back the advances he has made. I've seen Raven's dedication to the Emergency Fund, and am confident that she will continue the incredible work done by past slates in growing it and ensuring it won't be attacked.

Most of all, I appreciate Engage's willingness to not take credit. They have taken pains to acknowledge everyone in College Council and the SG committees whose work they are supporting and hope to continue. They know that it takes all of us working together – in SG and not – to successfully make change on campus. They know that RSOs need to come more into the conversation with administrators: we saw the success that these types of conversations have as UCEA successfully fought to establish a Green Fund. Imagine what we could do if all RSO's had that access."

Thank you Ridgley for your kind words, as well as all the work you have done for the past 4 years at UChicago.

Voting starts tomorrow and don't forget, 4th years are able to vote for both Liaisons and Slate positions! Vote ENGAGE!

Meet the ENGAGE Slate!

𝐖𝐡𝐨?
Alex Levi is running for VP of Administration.

𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭?
Alex is a third year in The College majoring in Mathematics. He will be starting the BA/MA program in Computational Social Science next fall, where he will specialize in Linguistic Anthropology.

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐬?
Alex functions best as a catalyst. He is good at guiding conversations and planting the seeds of policy that other people eventually co-opt: an invaluable skill in a position where most of your work is holding meetings with administrators. He is blunt and unafraid to speak his mind when the time is right. Alex is strongly Chaotic Good, but he has learned that change happens simultaneously within the confines of the institutions and in the subconscious of the people.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐆 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬?
As a second year, Alex focused heavily on improving campus sustainability. He brought The Wild & Scenic Film Festival, one of the largest environmental film festivals in the nation, to UChicago. He also helped pass legislation through SG Assembly that got CCS solidified as a standing committee, and he helped negotiate their inaugural $1,000 budget.

This year, Alex has emphasized campus mental health. He is leading a team of SG members, faculty supporters, and student authors to write UChicago’s first ever comprehensive mental health resource book. It prioritizes student experience and normalizes seeking help. It seeks to reduce instances of miscommunication between admin/students. Alex has found that the best philosophy surrounding mental health advocacy is one of collective liberation and mutual healing. He hopes the new Wellness Center can provide more visible opportunities for group therapy and intersectional health & wellness workshops.

𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭?
René Magritte although after watching a documentary on Hilma af Klint I'm pretty torn.