Written By || Ola Abimbola; State Chair
Looking back, the year 2019 was a year of much success and many accomplishments. The Students United board of directors forged a dream to combat food and housing insecurity, environmental sustainability, voter registration and internationals student healthcare. I am undoubtedly confident the year 2020 is the year where those dreams will come into fruition.
I am very pleased with what we accomplished as a student advocacy organization during the fall semester. We have made headway with our objectives and are now in the planning process.
In terms of the International Student Healthcare, we have conducted a survey about international students' opinions pertaining to their health insurance survey and will be using that data to inform our participation in the system office's ongoing Request for Proposals from insurance companies. Two university students are participating in the process with data from dozens of international students across all seven universities.
Food and Housing insecurity has been a topic of much debate over the past few years. Student governments and Campus Staff on each of our campuses have held food drive events to provide food and monetary donations to each of the food shelves on the campuses; while others who do not have a food shelf are building one. We also met with the Leadership Council—consisting of the state university presidents—to ask for their support in providing funding for the sustainability of the food pantry/shelf programs on each of our campuses, so that they do not have to depend solely on fundraising.
Students United November Conference 2019
We are in the planning phase of student voter registration and are well equipped for the upcoming elections this year. We have created a comprehensive plan after consultation with our board of directors, staff and other Minnesota State office and bargaining units such as the IFO and the Leadership Council.
Environmental sustainability is currently being tackled as we collaborate with the Leadership Council to ensure that all our campuses sign the Carbon Commitment in a pledge to be carbon neutral. I am pleased to say that campuses which are yet to sign are planning to do so and the current signatories are either currently working on an environmental sustainability strategic plan or planning to sign the resiliency agreement (i.e. a step further than the Carbon Commitment).
I look forward to even greater success this year with the dedication and hard work of my fellow officers, our board of directors, the St. Paul and campus staff, and other stakeholders. We have many things to look forward to this semester: our second annual Advocacy Conference on Feb. 22nd – 23rd, Advocacy Day on Feb. 24th, and our Federal Lobbying Trip in D.C. March 8th – 12th. It is my belief that the year 2020 shall be a year of progress!
Happy New Year!
Ola Abimbola, State Chair