The fall semester for Temple Student Government was one marked by collaboration with student organizations, advocating for public safety efforts and engaging voters ahead of a significant midterm election.
During the Spring, TSG plans to continue working with Jennifer Griffin, vice president of public safety, to help address campus safety issues, and prepare for the upcoming TSG elections.
“In terms of the overall success of the semester, I would say we were very successful in terms of outreach, communication and advocacy,” said Student Body President Gianni Quattrocchi.
Here is what TSG accomplished in the Fall along with some of their goals for the Spring.
STUDENT COLLABORATION
This past semester, TSG helped restore Temple’s chapter of It’s On Us, a national campaign created by the Obama administration that raises awareness for sexual violence survivors and allies across universities, called Student Activists Against Sexual Assault.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Temple’s previous chapter of It’s On Us failed to renew its status as a campaign, however TSG reached out to SAASA to restore Temple’s chapter status, Quattrocchi said.
TSG will work with It’s On Us chapter and SAASA to help support students, spread awareness on sexual assault and push for expanded sexual assault prevention policy at Temple.
TSG also aimed to address students’ basic needs on campus by hosting events, like a Campus Hunger Resource Table in November that provided information and resources on food security, the Cherry Pantry Food Drive and a Basic Needs Workshop curated by The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice.
They also focused on increasing student feedback by hosting bi-weekly town halls and requiring student organizations to attend one TSG town hall every two months.
CAMPUS SAFETY AND UNIVERSITY RESOURCES
On Monday, Jan. 23, Quattrocchi joined Griffin, President Jason Wingard and TSG at a campus safety town hall to discuss Temple’s safety efforts, the Temple University Police Department and the challenges of addressing public safety. TSG will host another campus safety town hall on Feb. 2.
Additionally, TSG worked with Griffin to voice student concerns about campus safety. Griffin spoke at TSG town halls and roundtables with student organization leaders and campus safety members to discuss Temple’s existing safety services and areas of campus safety where students would like to see improvement.
After Quattrocchi voiced his concerns in the fall semester about FLIGHT, Temple’s fixed-route shuttle service, not including 10th Street where University Village, Kardon Atlantic, Apex on Diamond and the Regional Rail station are located, the service expanded its route to incorporate an East Loop on Jan. 14
“At TSG, we’re always working with university partners and administrators,” Quattrocchi said. “I meet with campus safety on a weekly basis.”
For the spring semester, TSG hoped to implement the U-Pass program, which would give students, and potentially employees, a pass for unlimited SEPTA rides in all zones and on regional rail for the semester. TSG believed the program would provide students with accessible transportation, alleviating costs and decreasing university carbon emissions, Quattrocchi said.
However, after a conversation with university administration, TSG will no longer pursue the U-Pass initiative because it would increase tuition for students, Quattrocchi said.
“Our goal at student government is to keep tuition as low as possible, so we aren’t going to be pursuing a program that would require that significant of an increase,” he said.
VOTER ENGAGEMENT
During the midterm election season, TSG worked with university administration to emphasize civic engagement on campus. TSG promoted general information about the midterms, hosted elected officials, like U.S. House Rep. Brendan Boyle and State Rep. Jordan Harris, organized a civic engagement fair and provided stamps for students who were voting by mail.
TSG also met with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and State Sen. Sharif Street to talk about issues like college affordability, public transit and public safety.
TSG’s spring elections will include two application periods for students who want to run for a particular position. The campaign season will begin with the announcement of the initial candidate and conclude with students casting online ballots for candidates and potential referendums. The inauguration will take place in late April or early May.
“I’m going to have as little input over the elections as possible,” Quattrocchi said. “That will be handled by an elections commissioner because we want to keep that as independent from the existing administration as we can.”
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