THE CHICAGO MAROON — APRIL 28, 2021
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Thrive hopes to redistribute some UCPD funding towards students. CONTINUED FROM PG. 6
that people can make appointments for the evening or weekend,” Wang said. She noted that it was important to keep in mind SCS and admin’s “concerns about cost and [make] sure that clinicians aren’t burning out.” On Supporting Marginalized Students Uplifting marginalized students is central to Thrive’s platform, according to its three members. They hope to establish an SAO that can address some of those goals. “[The Student Advocacy Office] is a group made by students, for students, consisting of students from all over the University who identify as survivors, FGLI students, students who have taken leaves of absences, to help other students navigate Title IX, navigate leave of absence policy, [and] navigate advising when you’re an FGLI student so that students will feel heard and represented by people who have similar experiences to them,” DePompei said. Both DePompei and Kumar emphasized that the positions in SAO would be paid. “Wanting this position to be paid is very much influenced by our conversation with the Odyssey Scholars fellows board [Odyssey Scholars Community Fellows], where they talked about how difficult it was to find on-campus jobs,” Kumar said. “And I think if this is one thing that we can help with, we’d love to do that, especially for marginalized groups on campus, to make sure that they have support and [that they] are compensated for that support.” “We can’t possibly represent every single student’s individual identities, but we can listen, we can learn. And we have
learned so much from the conversations that we’ve had this week and that we hope to continue to have…to better advocate for these students,” Kumar said. On Greek Life As a whole, DePompei said that “we as a slate [were] pretty satisfied up until a couple of weeks ago with how COVID measures have taken place on campus purely in terms of limiting spread, which is the most important thing [for] student health.” “But, with the recent outbreak that was largely driven by off-campus fraternity parties and traveling after [during] spring break, we think our platform for our idea for Greek life recognition is probably the most salient issue in terms of the COVID outbreak,” DePompei continued. The initial outbreak resulted in over 60 cases of COVID-19, though that number has risen. To limit the spread, the University instituted an extended stayat-home order for students in on-campus housing that began on April 7 and was lifted on April 20.. “Greek life recognition is something that has been a conversation for years, prompted by survivors in groups like PSA [Phoenix Survivors Alliance],” Kumar said. “I think that this year, we very much see the other harm that a lack of recognition can bring to campus, especially as they impact everyone with COVID violations and things like that.” “The most important element of recognition is that with University oversight and communication with national chapters, there is greater oversight over the resources that frats are oftentimes able to use as a means to host parties, meaning their houses,” Kumar continued. Kumar outlined how national chapters
own the houses that frats are housed in, which means that “the University doesn’t have oversight over [the houses] right now in terms of leasing.” “Right now, a lot of the accountability measures are figured out by men in fraternities, and when you’re punishing your brother that you have pledged with, that you’ve rushed with, it doesn’t necessarily mean the safest space for accountability,” Kumar said. On Graduate Students United (GSU) “In the past, SGA [Student Government Assembly] has not really taken a stance toward GSU recognition as a body, I think because Graduate Council prefers to remain more neutral,” Wang said. But if the recently proposed referendum to split Graduate Council from Undergraduate SG (USG) passes, that may no longer be the case for USG, which would then be operating separately from Graduate Council. “While we want to remain on good terms and have good communication with Grad Council, we also want to make sure that we take this opportunity to talk to GSU and really uplift the work that they’re doing,” Wang said. That uplifting would take on a few forms, according to Wang. “We want to bring up GSU recognition in meetings with admin,” Wang said. “Undergraduates benefit from grad labor. We all have grad students as TAs, [and] they can also be mentors. We owe it to them to advocate for them.” But Wang also believes that undergraduate support of graduate students can take on other forms, such as “connecting undergraduate students to a graduate student [or to] parents who might need someone to help babysit their child [when] they’re at class or doing an exam.”
On the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) “We as a slate want to lift the curtain on what operations UCPD has and has not done,” Kumar said. UCPD’s current jurisdiction stretches beyond campus limits, from East 37th Street to East 64th Street and from South Cottage Grove Avenue to South Lake Shore Drive. Kumar noted that the size of the patrol area means that community members unaffiliated with UChicago are also policed by UCPD. “Why does the University have such a large private police force when it clearly isn’t only students who are being policed, right?” Kumar asked. Thrive hopes to redistribute some of the funding for UCPD towards students. “The work that [UCPD does] is oftentimes reactive as opposed to preventative. When harm occurs on campus in the form of a mugging or something like that, UCPD takes note of this, but students are oftentimes left on their own to pay for things like hospital bills…. We really want to push for transparency in the budget to be able to make the argument that these funds should then be distributed to support the student,” Kumar said. “This comes back to our differentiation between big tangible ideas and small tangible ideas,” DePompei added. “While we are supporting carrying out CNC’s vision for defund, disband, abolish UCPD, we also, in the interim, care about supporting students’ mental health [and] supporting FGLI students in their move-in and moveout processes. We care about supporting students and not policing them and giving them tangible actions that [do not involve] police.” “In our vision for what a safe campus looks like, safety looks supportive, safety looks inclusive, and safety doesn’t police,”
Thrive Elected Executive Slate as Referendum to Split SG Passes By MICHAEL MCCLURE Senior News Reporter Thrive was elected Student Government (SG)’s next executive slate on Friday, April 23, as the spring 2021 elections came to a close. Third-years Parul Kumar, Murphy DePompei, and Natalie
Wang ran for president, vice president for administration, and vice president for student affairs, respectively. They will assume office on June 13. Thrive, which ran unopposed, received a total of 1,107 votes from the student body. There were 781 abstentions, while write-in slates received a
combined 57 votes. “We are honored and thrilled to formally accept the position of Student Government Executive Slate. In the past week, we have had the pleasure of speaking with so many wonderful students and we cannot wait to continue these conversations,” Thrive wrote in
a statement shared with The Maroon. The ballot for this year’s election also included a referendum on splitting SG into a separate Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and Graduate Council (GC), intended to improve internal coordination and student representaCONTINUED ON PG. 8