For Syracuse University’s Student Association president and vice president, summer was a time of planning and preparation for major initiatives, including the launch of a SA team to compile a report on campus sexual assault and relationship violence.

SA President Ghufran Salih and Vice President Kyle Rosenblum spent time doing “foundational” work on various student government initiatives, they said. Rosenblum said the pair talked at length about what they wanted their leadership role in the organization to look like and spent time planning the actions they’d take to execute their vision for SA.

They’re already working to engage the SU student body just a few days into the new semester. Salih said one of the most exciting parts about returning to campus was having freshmen and first-year transfer students approach her with opinions and questions.

“It motivated me even more to just step up and get ready for action this semester,” she said.

The two ran for SA president and vice president on a five-pillar platform that included an emphasis on health and wellness and an “unwritten” theme for students to express their ideas and initiatives.

Salih and Rosenblum were officially sworn in at the first meeting of SA’s 63rd legislative session on Monday.

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Much of the summer was spent gathering cabinet applications, conducting interviews and choosing appointees for the cabinet, Salih said. Rosenblum, after Monday’s meeting, added that it was difficult to wait for cabinet nominees to be confirmed because the pair couldn’t work on their ideas or initiatives until cabinet members were officially appointed by the assembly.

“Everything’s really going to start moving now,” he said.

Not many new cabinet members have previous SA experience, Salih said, so she and Rosenblum want to work to make sure the new members are comfortable in their positions.

Setting goals and project time frames in the cabinet to increase SA’s efficiency and accountability will also be a main focus, Salih added.

A portion of Rosenblum’s summer was spent drafting a proposal report for a peer listening service, which would allow students to anonymously discuss difficult situations with peers trained in active listening, Rosenblum said. The initiative was developed last year by former Vice President Angie Pati. Rosenblum assisted with last year’s initiative as a member of SA’s Health and Wellness Subcommittee.

Rosenblum said he hopes to pitch the proposal to the university in the first weeks of the fall semester.

An SA team was assembled during the summer that will compile a sexual assault and relationship violence report. The report will be compiled in a style similar to the mental health report produced by SA’s 60th legislative session, Rosenblum added.

He said the team will start early in the fall semester. The team will compile data at a university-wide and national level and give recommendations on how to address sexual and relationship violence in the campus community.

Salih returned to campus in mid-August to participate in orientation leader training. Rosenblum, who was also an orientation leader this year, arrived in early July. Despite being physically outside Syracuse this summer, Salih and Rosenblum said they still felt connected to the campus and the university community.

“I think that we both were so determined to continue the work that we were doing on campus,” Salih said, referring to the spring 2018 transition between the outgoing and incoming administrations.

Rosenblum said that transition time made it easier to plan during the summer and get started when he and Salih were back on campus.

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One goal of the administration is to expand, strengthen and heavily promote Diversity Week, an annual event that occurs in April, the president and vice president said.

Rosenblum said he and Salih also want to work with the Public Relations Committee to increase diversity in the organization and its initiatives by reaching new students and increasing representation of students typically underrepresented in SA. At Monday’s SA meeting, Peter Choi and Torre Payton-Jackson were confirmed as co-chairs of the Public Relations Committee.

“We’re trying to kind of find a way to balance diversity and inclusion in Student Association,” Salih said. “These two words are not interchangeable. To foster a diverse requirement means that the inclusiveness also has to be there.”

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In addition to increasing diversity in SA, the two leaders are looking to increase transparency within the organization, Rosenblum said. This includes creating a “strong connection” between SA’s cabinet and assembly to foster a working relationship that allows for feedback to be exchanged easily, he added.

Salih said helping SA transition into the new legislative session is an important focus for the next few weeks. Rosenblum was on the Health and Wellness Subcommittee last year, but Salih is new to the organization. After the Monday meeting, Salih said there was some sense of having to adjust to their positions in SA and their roles in the organization’s meetings.

“We really got an inside look at what it’s like to be in SA,” she said.

In the next few weeks, Salih and Rosenblum plan to meet with university administrators, such as Dean of Students Robert Hradsky and Senior Vice President for Enrollment and the Student Experience Dolan Evanovich, as well as student leaders, Salih said.

Reconnecting with people from the spring semester and reaching out to new individuals will be a priority at the beginning of the fall semester, she added.

After her first SA meeting, Salih said it “still feels surreal” that the semester is finally beginning after all the work she and Rosenblum put in over the summer. She’s ready, she said, to “hit the ground and go.”

— Asst. News Editor Catherine Leffert contributed reporting to this story.

Published on August 28, 2018 at 9:04 pm

Contact India: irmiragl@syr.edu