SG increases senatorial participation

Boosted participation means Comets chose school representatives

Student Government wrapped up its fall elections with an addition of 23 new senators, creating an entire senate body with no appointments necessary.

Raul Hinojosa

Six departments were merged into the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusionn on Sept. 1 to unify advocacy for underrepresented students.

In spring of 2022, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion—known as oDEI—began the process of acquiring and rebranding centers to achieve a new sense of unity. The merger will include the Multicultural Center, Galerstein Gender Center, AccessAbility Resource Center, Equity Policy Education, Employee Equity Initiatives and Student Equity Initiatives. oDEI Communications Manager Alexandra Pirkle said acquired departments received remodeled office space and websites, as oDEI began to capitalize on more recognizable centers for outreach.

“This is a reorganization and an expansion of the office,” said Pirkle. “We’re looking at how we could best align our resources, our talent, to align with a strategic plan and best serve students and employees on this campus from the perspective of oDEI.”

Raul Hinojosa, the new Vice-President for Equity Policy Education, said that the merger hasn’t been all smooth sailing.

“I’ll admit that one of the challenges

As SG focused on enhancing the re cruitment cycle, this race was much more competitive than past elections.

"We really focused on recruitment and getting as many people to apply for posi tions as possible, as many people to run.

We had a solid goal of making every po sition competitive...[and] we succeeded," said Margaret Moore, the SG Vice Presi dent.

After years of decreased participation, SG recognized that transforming the re cruitment period would result in visible im