Saint Mary’s celebrates Black literature

By KATELYN WALDSCHMIDT a ssociate news editor

on Feb. 22, saint mary’s college continued its celebration of black h istory month with a “celebration of black l iterature.”

The reading was hosted by the student diversity board and black student a ssociation ( bsa), as well as the education and e nglish departments. w hile eating treats from nothing bundt cakes, the audience listened to guest speaker dionne bremyer talk about her book “The islands.” p resident of student diversity board ( sdb) crystal ramirez said that this event was part of the board’s mission to “advocate, celebrate and educate.” bremyer used to be a professor at saint mary’s and now works as an associate professor of e nglish at notre dame. ramirez said that bremyer’s return to saint mary’s to speak shows the community that is fostered at the college.

“This was the perfect way of doing all three. we got to educate, celebrate and advocate in this month of black history with a black author,” she said.

{ editor’s note: crystal ramirez is a former associate news editor for The observer.}

“she no longer teaches here, but she still keeps in touch not only with faculty and staff who are currently here, but with students who were here,” she explained. ramirez said breymer’s connection to saint mary’s made it “surprisingly easy” to get her to speak on campus.

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“Raspberries are a member of the rose family.” to students stems from personal experience, s tokes said during the town hall.

“o ne of the things that always kept me from getting more involved is that [student government] felt like a club or something that you have to be invited to, to participate,” s tokes noted. “it never seemed like something like that could actually provide me with a way to talk about some of the things that felt i had to change on campus.” i n order to combat this feeling, the s zotko- s tokes ticket plans on improving communication between student government and the student body. s zotko said he “would like to set up some kind of electronic communication system,” that would let students contact him directly. This plan would also allow students to share ideas while being off campus, he said. a lso key to their effort is restructuring the way that student government office hours work. s zotko noted that the office can also be too busy previous administrations. at times, which dissuades students from sharing their ideas. s zotko and s tokes also said that they hope to better communicate what s G a does to incoming first years during welcome weekend. This is part of a larger attempt to make student government more visible on campus, the pair said. s zotko admitted that he would not consider himself “a super outgoing guy generally,” and that he aims to get most of his event ideas by listening to the community. he also said he hopes to add another mental health counselor on holy c ross’ campus, as there is currently only one, and he added that this should

“a lot of times we will have three, four or five different senators doing office hours in there. a s a student walking by you’re going to think they’re in a meeting,” he said. s zotko said the pair plans on instituting a better scheduling system that will make meetings more accessible and frequent.

When it comes to planning events, s zotko made it clear that he will rely heavily on student input.

“be a female counselor.” s peaking on his role as vice president, s tokes said that he envisions himself working in a “boots on the ground” way by personally reaching out to community members to see what is a priority. voting for student body president will take place Thursday in the lounge by ave b rew c afe from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“i want us to act with purpose to actually get these things done,” s zotko said.

Contact Liam Kelly at lkelly8@nd.edu

students, athletes, Gateway students and more.

d uran added that she hopes to bring her experience as a board member in First Generation c lub to help in this effort.

“ i ’ve worked with disadvantaged students and students who don’t get as much attention,” she said.

b oth m c d onald and d uran have lived off campus during their time at h oly c ross, which they argue will help them serve that part of the community better than r eaching out to students for input is also central to the m c d onald and d uran’s campaign, they said. i n order for this communication to happen, m c d onald argued, students need to know that they can speak to student government about their ideas.

“People talk about wanting to include commuter students, but there’s never been, to my knowledge, anyone reaching out to them and actually finding out what they want,” d uran said.

“a lot of people don’t know what the s G a offices are for. They walk past this room to get some kind of office that they can’t go into.” m c d onald said, “ i t’s actually there for students to be able to come in and talk to us and share their ideas and their concerns.” o ne of the biggest concerns for m c d onald and d uran is getting people to come to events. The pair noted that attendance at student government events has been low recently.

“This is the year of students that lived with covid throughout high school, so they have a harder time being social and meeting people,” d uran said of the first-year class. d uran stressed that she and m c d onald “want to know what events are not appealing” and proposed creating different events that will cater to more students. a nother priority for the ticket is improving mental health services on campus. h oly c ross c ollege currently only has one mental health counselor available for students. m c d onald also emphasized the need for a female counselor in order for female students to feel more comfortable using mental health services. b oth m c d onald and d uran emphasized that their administration would be a productive collaboration between each other. “ i t’s not about the fact that a shley’s higher than me, or i ’m lower. We’re equal,” d uran said. voting for student body president and vice president will take place from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. Thursday in the lounge by a ve b rew c afe.

“We have 400-500 students, for one counselor that’s stretching him thin,” m c d onald argued.

Contact Liam Kelly at lkelly8@nd.edu