On Wednesday, Feb. 28, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Student Association (SA) met to hear from Ashley Nowak and Caleb Colon-Rivera, the Director and the Program Coordinator of the Center for Transformative Justice respectively. SA also voted on SA2324-019: Resolution to Approve UWL Student Association’s Stance on Wellness Weekend and Related Statement, which was introduced in the previous meeting.
As stated on their website, the Center for Transformative Justice (CTJ) serves campus by providing programming and spaces that are aimed to address barriers and inequalities that students may experience. Some of the programs that CTJ offers include Bias Support and Education, Campus Climate Research, Campus Thread and many others.
During their time with SA, Nowak and Colon-Rivera delivered an interactive training session that covered topics such as implicit bias, microaggressions and stereotypes.
Several members of SA shared their experiences with microaggressions and stereotypes, helping to destigmatize the topics and better inform those who may not have as much experience in those areas.
“It made me feel less alone, knowing other people went through that.” College of Business Administration Senator Marlee Simpson reflected on some of the questions asked during the training and said, “Other people get to understand that not everyone got to grow up surrounded by people who look exactly like them.”
After the bias training concluded, SA President Emma Latus shared that the candidates for the Chancellor position will be on campus March 4-7, and that there will be surveys about the candidates will be available until Friday, March 8.
College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Senator and Wellness Weekend Task Force member Easton Moberg shared an update regarding the Wellness Weekend Task Force and it’s next steps.
Moberg explained, “Faculty Senate gave us some options on how we can proceed as a task force, and our options are not necessarily similar to what we have been doing since November 2. A lot of those options include disbanding as a group, but we are currently discussing how we will move forward as a group.”
Following the Wellness Weekend Task Force update, SA revisited the resolution, officially titled SA2324-019: Resolution to Approve UWL Student Association’s Stance on Wellness Weekend and Related Statement, that was introduced on Wednesday, Feb. 21, which informs the general student body that Wellness Weekend will not be happening for the 2024-2025 school year.
With minor changes, including adding all of the SA member’s names to the document and sending the resolution to the entirety of the UWL Faculty Senate, the resolution passed unanimously.
After passing SA2324-019: Resolution to Approve UWL Student Association’s Stance on Wellness Weekend and Related Statement, an email was sent out to the entirety of the student body this morning, Thursday, Feb. 29, at 11:03 a.m.
This email explained to students that the Faculty Senate voted not to continue Wellness Weekend during the Spring Semester of the 2022-2023 school year and that while the academic calendar is set for the 2024-2025 school year, there are still negotiations taking place that are working towards bringing Wellness Weekend back.
A portion of the email reads, “It is important that students are aware of this change but are also made aware that there is still work being done to bring Wellness Weekend back to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus community.”
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to members of SA.
More information about the cancellation of Wellness Weekend can be found here. SA will meet again on Wednesday, March 6.
