Petition Garners over 2,500 signatures and Community Demands Change

EVELYN DAVIDSON EVELYN.DAVIDSON.20@CNU.EDU

During the first week of April, CNU’s Student Government Association held elections for their 2023-2024 Eboard and students were able to vote for the candidate of their choosing on The Compass from April 3 to April 7.

Current Chief of Staff Katelyn Bennett was elected as President of SGA. The Captain’s Log spoke with her about her goals for the upcoming year and the initiatives she plans on taking to both lead the executive board and continue to advocate for the student body across campus.

Bennett first gave an overview of what SGA does as a whole, since many people may not have an accurate idea as to how delegates help the CNU community.

“Our primary goal is to bridge the gap between students and administration by filtering concerns and being a resource for people. We want to be able to bring the students’ perspective to administration,” Bennett said.

If a student has an issue but does not feel comfortable speaking it aloud, Bennett said that the SGA executive board and delegates are open to communicating any idea or concern and will maintain anonymity.

“Lately we have had a lot of dining hall initiatives come to us with cross contamination and people not being able to eat certain things,” Bennett shared when asked what actions have been taken by SGA recently.

“We’ve been really good at getting in contact with dining hall services and with Ramadan, we have been working hard on making sure that dining halls are accommodating when people are allowed to eat and that there are resources off campus that people can go to if dining halls aren’t open,” she said.

Speaking on her goals for the upcoming year, Bennett mentioned how she was already coming up with new events for the student body to enjoy, “I really like our event Light the Night and when we come back at the beginning of spring semester, everyone’s a little tired and I want a similar event around spring semester, just to bring the same excitement around the year.

We’ve also done a lot of impromptu open forums in the past which have been successful with people coming in and having active conversations with administration while we mediate them. So I would love to make those forums more intentional.”

Communication is key when it comes to inside the delegation and since there are many different committees, another one of Bennett’s goals is to eliminate any negative distinctions that might be seen between the executive board and delegations.

SGA holds biweekly delegation meetings that are open to everyone and students are welcome to join and bring their ideas to the table or just watch and listen. While her term as president doesn’t begin just yet, the CNU community is excited to see how Katelyn Bennett and the rest of the incoming executive board make a difference on campus.

The Captain’s Log also talked with Emily Sullivan, another CNU alumnae whose story was featured in The Pilot article. In her time at CNU, Sullivan was part of the Marching Captains, Zeta Tau Alpha fraternity and Student Honor Council. She majored in political science with a double minor in psychology and leadership studies. Sullivan originally planned to double major, but dropped one of her majors so that she could graduate a semester early. Sullivan graduated in December 2019, because she felt it was too difficult for her to stay at CNU after her experience. The Title IX investigation concluded by deeming her a willing participant, reported The Pilot. When asked why she felt it was important to come forward, Sullivan told The Captain’s Log, “It's one thing to have your body violated, but it's another to have those who are supposed to protect you also violate you.”

Tsui, a 2020 CNU graduate, was told that there would be a task force created for the Title IX office, but that never happened, reported The Pilot.

She added, “I am still in therapy to this day. And the trauma that I'm dealing with, is dealing with how the institution failed me instead of getting over my rape.”

Sullivan explained that she had to take two classes with the person that she said raped her, depsite the university imposing a no-contact order. In addition, she alleges that she was discouraged from running for President of the Student Honor Council because she had been outspoken about her negative experience with CNU’s Title IX office.

When asked if she was nervous to speak out, Sullivan said she expected a negative reaction similar to the response she says she received in 2018, instead, she has been moved to tears by the positive response by the community.

Navigating the Title IX process, Sullivan said, “I had to decode this policy on my own at 19 with PTSD, afraid out of my mind because my rapist lived on the floor beneath me in my residence hall.” Now, Sullivan and many others want transparency and accountability for the entire process.

Sullivan had met Nixon when they both interned for Fear 2 Freedom, the sexual assault awareness non-profit founded by Rosemary Trible. Sullivan became connected with Caroline Tsui, the third CNU alumna to speak in The Pilot article, when she was compiling narratives to present when filing a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights.

When asked if she was nervous to speak out and why she felt it was important, Tsui wrote in an email to The Captain’s Log, “People have been messaging and telling me how brave I was, but I didn't feel brave, just scared. But I knew the Title IX process at CNU was so backward, stressful, and just plain wrong that it needed scrutiny. I couldn't just let it continue quietly ruining student's lives.”

WITL hosted an open forum on Monday at 6 p.m. where students could ask questions, voice frustrations, and share their own experiences. Students and faculty filled a lecture room in Luter Hall, with so many in attendance that several stood for the duration of the forum. Both Nixon and Sullivan were in attendance and briefly spoke.

Late Monday morning, Thompson issued an email to the CNU community, acknowledging that she had read the open letter. She also said she will meet with WITL’s leadership later in the week to go over what was learned from the open discussion and intends to share this with fellow CNU administrators. Thompson pledged to “listen and engage with our student leaders to continue these conversations and find our best way forward together.”

The Captain’s Log reached out for an official statement from the university on Friday evening and they responded Monday evening, reiterating Thompson’s pledge and stating that they were pleased about the open forum.

On April 12, 2023, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) announced new federal vehicle emission standards to help combat climate change.

According to CBS news, President Biden signed an executive order that stated 54% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 will be electric, with as many as 2/3 by 2032.

According to CNBC, electric vehicle sales only made up 5.8% of the 13.8 million new cars sold in the country last year.

The EPA Press Office stated that the new proposals would avoid sending nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, equivalent to more than twice the total U.S. CO2 emissions in 2022. They would also help to reduce America’s reliance on approximately 20 billion barrels of oil imports.

The EPA added that since 2020, there has been a 40% increase in the number of electric vehicle chargers, with over 130,000 public chargers now in the country. The Biden Administration plans to increase this number to 500,000 by 2030, CNBC reported.