SGA discusses student engagement, response to DePaulia article on earnings of high-ranking university employees

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Bianca Cseke | The DePaulia

DePaul University Lincoln Park campus.

DePaul’s Student Government Association (SGA) passed a measure to create an ad hoc committee on student engagement during its general body meeting Thursday.

SGA Senators Zoe Soteres and Gema Tinoco, Executive Vice President of Operations Wesley Janicki and DePaul senior David Hupp are spearheading the effort to create the committee, which will focus on ways to get the student body more involved in SGA. 

Soteres, who represents the Theatre School, reached out to theatre school students asking why they were not involved in SGA. 

Soteres said the reasons students provided include students believing that SGA was more associated with the Board of Trustees and DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban and that the SGA did not care about students.

Hupp, who regularly attends SGA’s meetings, said the committee members will conduct preliminary research on the issue and create a proposal to present to the general body.

Response to DePaulia Article on Earning of University Employees

SGA members discussed ways to demand the university increase transparency after a DePaulia article examined the earnings of the university’s high-ranking employees. Those ideas included creating a resolution or writing a petition calling for the university to change how it decides faculty members’ salaries. 

SGA expressed concerns about this, citing that dining workers at DePaul were laid off at the start of the pandemic last year and that the senior vice president of enrollment, who is among the high-ranking employees, decides which students receive scholarships. 

To examine this issue further, SGA discussed conducting a comparative analysis of how the salaries of high-ranking university officials compared to the executive salaries of other universities across the city and the country. 

Vaccine Promotion Campaign

SGA Executive Vice President of Diversity and Equity Robbie Merkel is working on organizing a panel consisting of individuals from the College of Science and Health that will discuss Covid-19 vaccine efficacy. According to Merkel, the Center for Community Health Equity, the College of Science and Health along with the Office of Health, Promotion and Wellness have shown interest in sponsoring the event.

Merkel also encouraged SGA members to submit a photo as part of SGA’s vaccine promotion campaign and explain why others should get vaccinated. SGA will open the Google Form to the rest of the DePaul community this week, according to Merkel. 

In addition, Zoom backgrounds are now available for the DePaul community to use to indicate they have received or will receive a Covid-19 vaccination.

Elections

SGA Elections Coordinator Jane Pallos said the applications packet and petition for prospective candidates will be posted on SGA’s DeHUB page Monday.

President’s Report

In this week’s president’s report, SGA President Alyssa Isberto said she is working with Merkel on a resolution to push the university to mandate vaccinations for all members of the DePaul community. Isberto added that other departments at DePaul are working on a similar initiative.

Soumitra Ghosh, the vice president of enrollment management, will join SGA during this week’s general body meeting. Ghosh was scheduled to come to last week’s meeting, but was unable to attend.

Vice President’s Report

SGA Vice President Watfae Zayed encouraged SGA members and others to watch the Ramadan Education video put together by DePaul’s United Muslims Moving Ahead (UMMA). 

Other

SGA Senator for Mission and Ministry Jessica Nalupta discussed donating a portion of SGA’s Vincentian Service Day fund to the student food pantry. SGA voted on a design for its upcoming t-shirt drop. Newsline will release a poll for the university’s 125th birthday asking the DePaul community to vote on its official logo as part of DePaul’s 125th anniversary logo design challenge.