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An informative podcast from your elected UNLV Student Government Officials.
Unknown Speaker 0:03
Okay, so hi rebels. My name is Isaac Hernandez. I'm the current student body president, y'all.
Unknown Speaker 0:09
My name is Diana mancora. I'm the current student body vice president. We are yours in Unity. Hey, hey, hey, hey, y'all, and we're back. So today well, we don't have any guest speakers with. With us today. We do come with a couple of quick little updates and announcements from across campus. But um, you know, real quick, I was like, How are you feeling today?
Unknown Speaker 0:36
I am. You know, I'm feeling good. Feeling like it's feels like it's finals week, but it's not. But it just continues to progress.
Unknown Speaker 0:46
We're approaching that whole midterm season. As we approach October, that's when all the professor's start assigning those. Those midterms and you're not taking any you're just taking 400 level classes straight through this semester. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:00
yeah. So it's pretty interesting. I didn't. I literally talked to my advisor about the classes that I was taking in. They basically mentioned to me like, why are you taking all the hard classes in one semester? I'm just like, I didn't know that. But yeah, it's it's going. It's it's not great. But it will be great soon enough.
Unknown Speaker 1:21
Yeah, well, we do have I know, one thing to look forward to is going to be two weeks from now we have homecoming week. So that's going to be really exciting. And then next week, we have Mental Health Awareness Week, right?
Unknown Speaker 1:34
Yeah. So the specific designation for next week, it's going to be mental illness Awareness Week. And I just kind of want to go on a little spiel here. But in terms of, you know, mental health in general, if you are experiencing a mental illness, you are not alone, most of the time, there is a stigma attached to it. And basically all of next week is just going to be a very persistent and educative week in terms of the way that we treat other individuals and the way that we, you know, offer our kindness to them, because we never know what they're going through. And it doesn't have to, you know, be one person to tell the entire world that they're dealing with something as long as we're cherishing and really appreciating everyone and their presence. I think it can definitely go a long way. But the educative aspect we'll be picking up next week.
Unknown Speaker 2:19
Yeah, so definitely going to be really exciting. And then next week, we also have Voter Education Week, National Voter Education Week. So we have midterms coming up, like or not mid midterms coming up right around the corner, we have the first day of early elections on October 22. And then Election Day on November 8, and historically, you know, the 18 to 25 year old demographic has been the least likely to vote. And I think that one of the things that we're really trying to push for this, this this year is going to be for a higher turnout among the youth vote. So just keep an eye on on all the different ways to get involved with this election, all the different ways to get involved with educating yourself over the candidates, the issues, you know, are pertinent to what's who what matters to you. And also take a look at the UNLV cease on Instagram, we are actually hosting an event next Wednesday, a lunch and learn from I believe, 12 to two, to talk about different ways to get involved on a political campaign. So big shout out to our legislative and civic affairs department for putting that together alongside like the president's office, so I was
Unknown Speaker 3:32
I don't even want to throw in. So that would be the event that Diana just mentioned, that's going to fall on October 5, that is the Wednesday but on October 6, CSUN, will be co hosting alongside with Loki art therapy, it is going to be a event where it's simply honestly, I'm not going to put any very large words on it's just going to be a very fun event, you'll be able to show up and make your own slime. So if you watch Nickelodeon at some point in time, and used to watch the awards ceremony that they had get to dump slime on people. Now instead, with the event that we're going to have next week on October 6, that's Thursday, you'll be able to make your own slime and it's also part of the educator process. Regarding mental health and loci art therapy has been able to nurture a nice environment for students to embrace and just being creative and expressing themselves.
Unknown Speaker 4:27
Yeah, I know. I don't know how many of you guys remember the whole little trend that was going on? What was it like? 2018 I think it was like, just flying was huge. So one of the things you know, obviously loci are therapy, they focus primarily on alleviating stress and you know, working through things and through art and, you know, I like to paint but I'm nowhere near as good as Isaac over here. He puts together some really great things anything so you know, he can probably talk more about how it's you know, art is a good medium to work through a couple of different stuff and to express yourself. But you know, I was a big fan of making slime I will say that slime was very calming for me. And like even right now I'll be scrolling through Tik Tok, and I'll be watching, I'm not not even gonna lie, I'll be watching Tic TOCs with people like making slime and playing with slime. With like a story being read over the video I you know, that's that's my mornings. But it'll be really interesting. It'll be really fun. And you know, if you're interested in in coming, you know, that's next next thursday from 430 to 630, I believe. Yes. And it's going to be a great way for you to just, even if you don't necessarily want to come and like talk about something else, it's going to be a good way to get to know different people. So if you're a freshman, sophomore, junior, whatever, and you're looking for a way to connect with others, this is going to be a great opportunity to get to know other students and to at the end of the day, make some slime. Yeah, so
Unknown Speaker 6:05
yeah, and just a quick correction, the event is going to be again, Thursday, October 6, from 230 to 430, the event will likely be in Student Union room, 208, B, and C. And there's that, but I just kind of wanted to touch base on why CSUN as a whole wanted to collaborate with Loki art therapy, Diana mentioned, like I paint, but during the pandemic, it was part of my coping mechanism being very artsy. And everyone has a different way of the way that they express themselves. And the hobbies that they partake in. These are typically things that tend to brighten up someone's day, whether if it's a learning process, or something that they're really good at, and they, you know, turn a hobby into a career, any of that. But in general, we've always paid close attention to local art therapy, because again, they offer a very nice and welcoming environment to all students here at UNLV. And, honestly, I think it it really made us want to pay attention just because we seen the issue just in general regarding mental health. But in all honesty, mental health is not the only issue that we see here on campus at UNLV. At least with CSUN, we tend to get a lot of comments, suggestions and feedback coming from the student body. And recently, we've been paying very close attention with the first few weeks of school because a lot of the issues that students bring forward to see son are usually inconveniences they deal with. But that's what seasons here for. We're here to work through some of the issues that you're dealing with, and coming up with different ways to resolve a certain inconvenience that you're dealing with, or to really take a certain stressor off your shoulder. And honestly, we're here to advocate for students. So just even mentioning one issue that we've been hearing in particular, very often throughout the semester is issues with accessibility of entrances. In certain buildings, there have been a number of handicap buttons that haven't been working in a few different facilities. The Student Union is definitely one that a lot of students have called out and through this, this is for anyone listening in terms of how CSUN does function and how we do usually resolve some of these issues. But when it comes down to infrastructure issues that facilities are dealing with, we get the reports, we read through it, we see the validity behind it. And then we then ourselves submit work requests through the facility itself. So they can accommodate and resolve any of the issues that we are seeing. So when it came down to some of the handicap buttons, we put the request in, and we were given word that they were already actively working on it. So if you are a student that has been suggesting that the facilities with handicap buttons are not working, they are in the process of being fixed. It's a slow process, but the work request has been put in. Additionally, with other buttons, I believe there have been a few elevators that haven't been working. And this is just for informative purposes, just so students, and the entire student body does know as well as faculty and staff. If there are any elevators that are down and the buttons not working, we've also put in work quest to try and get these fixed. But what we have been told is that it's not a minor fix, it's usually the entire system, or at least the entire elevator that they need to really revamp and upgrade. And it takes a lot of time and money that is put into it to fix it. But it's a priority. And I will tell you that upper administration has had this change in the way that they have been approaching the way that they do so Been there funds, they really refocused after the pandemic, what some of their priorities were, I know a lot of the talks were renovations with campus. But with that you also have to accommodate some of the workforce readiness that comes into it. So they're focusing on that. But Diana, I do have a question. Have you heard of any other issues that students have brought forward to you?
Unknown Speaker 10:23
You know, there's, there's a couple, there's a couple of issues. But I think the biggest one that I'm going to bring up is actually going to be not too far out of student government, it's going to be more internal, but I think it comes to show, you know, it comes to show how much we need to engage with students and how much it's or how important it is to educate students about, you know, being civically engaged in this even in the smallest way, which is being Student Government. You know, we the very first episode, we touched on what student government really is, and, you know, the scope of what we can do. But one of the things that, you know, I think about a lot is a conversation that we had with President Whitfield where, you know, he said, you look at the university historically, what CSUN wants, it gets, if there's something that CSUN wants to get done on campus, they get it done. And that's why it's super important to get involved. Because at the end of the day, you know, our lives of students, it's going to impact us for a long time, we're here building our lives, our careers, we're making the connections and networks that are going to, you know, take us off to the next stage of our lives. And we all come from a very light, a lot of different, diverse, and just diverse backgrounds, and upbringings. And all of us that are at different points in our lives. And I think that that's, you know, talking about representation, I think that that's a big, you know, a big reason why representation has been a hot topic among politics at like the state and well municipal, state and federal levels. But it starts even in the smallest way, which is going to be in student government. So we actually have Senate elections coming up. And last week, Senate filings closed on Thursday at 5pm. And at the end of Thursday, at 5pm, we had zero applicants for two different colleges. It was the College of a college of engineering. And what was the other one? I believe it was? No, actually we had we had so we had zero applicants for the College of Engineering. And then we had only three applicants for the College of Liberal Arts. So looking at historically, like I when I became a Senator, I was a senator for the College of Liberal Arts. And we, like, I'll be honest, it was a very competitive process like college, a liberal arts historically has been the most competitive college to get a spot in. And, you know, a lot of it is because we're looking at people who are thinking about who are pre law, we are looking at students who are looking to get involved in politics in some way, shape, or form. I say that as a political science major that knows a lot of different political science majors that ran for this position. But also because they know about the importance of advocacy, and they know the importance of representation. And they know the importance of using their voice. And I think that I was really disheartened to see. So little applicants, and the only college that has any real competition or any competition at all, I'll be honest, is greenspon College of Urban Affairs, which, you know, if you're a criminal justice, major company, or communications major journalism major, you know, you're gonna be part of greenspon Actually, we're we're currently sitting in griensven, recording this. And we, I think that that was like, really the most disheartening thing to hear was that there were not a lot of applicants. And I, you know, we we marketed it as market to it. Yeah. Yeah. As much as we can on our end, but I think that I kind of it's moments like this, that I kind of wish that our constitution called for freshmen to call run for these positions, because, you know, looking at, you know, the juniors and the seniors and the sophomores that could have applied for these positions, right, they're tired, yo, we're tired. And maybe that has something to do with the way that not a lot of people applied. But I think a lot of another a big part of it is going to be just knowing what you can do as a senator, knowing the opportunities are available for you as a senator and what you can change on campus. You know, there's the opportunity to serve on several different committees like right now. Isaac and I are looking for people to serve on the the parking Student Advisory Council. So you know, if you're if you're driving, you know, that's, that's really important counsel to be handy, especially if you have, if you've been driving, if you've ever gotten a citation, like I got a booth, like this summer, you know, because from party parking, you know, parking services, big shout out to y'all, y'all are great.
Unknown Speaker 15:21
But, you know, one of the things that, you know, is really important when it comes to these positions is going to be the advocacy that comes with it, and using your voice and using your voice to fight for the communities that are reported to you and your constituents. And that being your college. And I know that in the past season has not had maybe the best wrap up. But you know, I think that with the times that we are in, it's really important that we change that and get more people involved. So with that being said, you know, we're most likely going to open up applications for appointments after November, after November 1 to in order to get a whole Senate again, because it does make it really complicated for committees to move forward with scholarships and grants and are still funding without in different projects on campus without a full Senate. So I think that, you know, if you're listening to this, if you are a if you're a student that's looking for a way to make their impact on campus to get involved. You know, definitely look, keep an eye out for those applications. And if you have any feedback, if you know why, like maybe students don't want to necessarily run for these positions anymore, if you have anything that you really would like to put forward. Just know that Isaac and I do run on an open door policy. So if you ever want to find us, look for us on the third floor of the Student Union, you know, and come and talk to us, we're always open. We're always open to chat.
Unknown Speaker 16:53
Yeah, I would, I'd say like after me and Diana found out how many applicants there were for the elections, we both kind of dived into a thorough discussion in terms of just trying to theorize why there were so little applicants, it happens year after year after year. And we had high expectations. And we set high expectations because we really do value just the standard of doing the absolute most that we can for student government in general. But I think with the way that we look at how many people do apply, the question is always why. And this can be directed in a number of areas, because I'm thinking in my head, there's a lot of students that provide suggestions and feedback about their community. But when you hear some of the ideas they propose, I oftentimes I'm like, that's, that's a really good idea, you should, you should get involved in CSUN. And there's a lot of times where, you know, we'll have people come up to me or Diana, or literally any senator and CSUN. And they'll talk about just the amount of praise and recognition that they're offering them in general for some of their ideas, and, and any of the projects that they're working on. But I always I'm a firm believer that ideas, they start somewhere. And most of the time the people that are acting on the ideas, they're, I mean, sometimes they're not the ones that originally came up with it, they probably had a discussion with a group of people. And they came together and really challenged each other in terms of how to dim down and how to really focus on some kind of solution for whatever the issue was at hand. And, you know, when we see students, you know, provide feedback, especially the first few weeks of school. That's why we had high expectations in terms of how many people would be applying. But honestly, it's, we still have high hopes, we're still optimistic, because we know students still want to be advocates. But the priorities right now have switched. During the pandemic, there was a time period where everyone wanted to focus on themselves, rather than serve their campus and their community here at UNLV. And we get it and now we're back in a rebound stage, to where we're starting to see a lot of the positive effects and the impacts of just people becoming more motivated to do things. So now we, again, notice students are wanting to focus on their career and professional development. And if CSUN doesn't provide that for you, we applaud you for you know, even looking into CSUN if you did look into CSUN. But this is why Diana mentioned the incoming freshman class, the freshman students whenever we would go to a student orientation. Literally the one word that I would just attribute to even tabling at those events is just wow, because we would have a lot of so many students come to us and they're like, how do we get involved? And then you'd have to explain to them that the way their costs The tuition is setup, that there are certain qualifications that they wouldn't meet, if they wanted to run as a senator. And I mean, the minimum GPA is 2.5. But you would still need a UNLV GPA in order to become a senator. So the issue was if freshmen wanted to run for an open seat, run an election or even be appointed into a position. They couldn't, because they don't have a UNLV GPA. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 20:27
unless they took the summer like summer class. Like, I know, there are some freshmen that took or just transfer students that have taken summer classes at UNLV. So they typically do have a UNLV GPA and can run. But it's not until you take your like your very first class. I mean, like, you would just need the minimum of like, one credit at UNLV, in order to have a UNLV GPA. But that's, that ends up being the real issue is I? I feel like, you know, one of the things that you mentioned was that a lot of people have been focusing on themselves. And, you know, at the end of the day, like, a lot of the senators that aren't rebounding, we have a couple that are going, you know, they're like us, we're in their senior year, and they're focusing on getting these, because I will say being an auditor is a lot of work. Well, did I say is it fulfilling the I mean, look at you know, Senator billet he will chair billet he just passed was, I think you'll probably noticed, oh, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 21:31
so he passed a resolution to urge the university to create a climate action plan and to also be included in the stars program, which would also give you an overview, the rank in terms of how they are following some of their overall goals, to be carbon neutral. But it's a wide variety of things that chair billet wanted to really solve the issue that we see with the climate action plan that we hope to see be brought back to life. We haven't had one since 2018. We're now in 2022. So it wasn't necessarily a priority for the university. And when President Whitfield came in in 2020, it wasn't something that CSUN brought up. But I will tell you, when I went out to invite President Whitfield to come to the senate meeting. He was super, super interested in just seeing what's going on within CSUN. So Diana, even touching base on President Whitfield giving us the words of encouragement in terms of CSUN. And whatever we set our minds to we can achieve. It's, it's true. Every single time, there's a student that asked me why should I get involved? I always like to tell them, Well, do you want to make change? Yeah, I'll always ask them what kind of career field they want to go into. And then when they kind of describe what they want to essentially do, I'll respond back and say, Oh, so you want to help people. And it's basically what CSUN does. We're advocates for students, we don't always have to work on large projects, it can always be smaller in you can work more individually based, but you're still face to face, in terms of the way you interact and do outreach with your constituents. Again, with me and Diana, we have open door policies, we're not always in the office, because again, we like to show face to the constituents, and just students in general friends, peer peers, and staff. Because I mean, they deserve all the recognition as possible, we are not once to you know, close the door, and we never see the light of day we want to be out, we want to see what the campus community is doing. And that's the beauty of it. When you join CSUN, you look at your campus a lot differently, think you cherish it, and you always look for new ways to improve it. But, you know, there's, there's a lot of things that get brought to the table and see sun. And yes, it may be a little bit time consuming. But the one thing I will always mention is that there's a legacy to be made within CSUN. But there's also a legacy to be made here on campus. One of the really big things that we're going to be working on in our time, we're really going to be focusing on giving alumni the recognition that they need alumni. And you know, a lot of the faculty and staff here, I think we've seen during the pandemic, you've seen a lot of people resigning or just switching over to a different career field, we have to pay attention to every single person on this campus. They all provide something to us. And it's just a recognition in the awareness of what they do. If we if we lose that appreciation of the simple and the minor jobs that you probably would never want to take, that becomes an issue. So we really have to pay attention to that stuff. And we're just looking to really promote activity that's already going on on campus. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 24:51
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know I just I think about the filing and I just think about how How much it's more work it's going to be in at the same time, you know, thinking about all the students, like, you know, especially especially engineering, oh my gosh, last week, we had Baja racing in here for crying out loud. Yeah. You know, Baja racing, with a College of Engineering, you know, full of a, it's a club full of engineers, and you know, it's a couple of business people, but they're doing great things that is putting you and I'll be on the map. And it's important to for an engineer, like, you know, college of engineering to have their voice also be present within the Senate when it comes to funding projects, sponsorships, you know, and also keeping CSUN accountable, you know, yeah. And, you know, I get that engineers are out and doing their own big things are on big projects, you know, they're out here building satellites, building race cars building,
Unknown Speaker 25:54
basically building anything. Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 25:57
think I wa is building a plane right now, I don't you,
Unknown Speaker 26:02
it's just fascinating, because I think everyone has grown expertise. And the second that you kind of look at a, like a group in general, and you kind of think to yourself, like, I'm not good at that. So I'm not going to really pay attention to what they're doing. That is the issue, pay attention to every single thing that you can possibly, you know, have the capability of focusing on just because, again, there's an appreciation that's lacking. And the more appreciation we have for people, the more open will become, the more kindness will see on campus. But the larger goal is to really bring more community in general. And I think that just it starts with the appreciation aspect of it. A lot of the times when me and Diana encounter leaders from our SOS, they really just talked to us in terms of, oh, we're having this event, we're doing this, can you help promote this for us, or we just wanted to know, or we wanted to tell you that we exist. And that's a really big thing that we've been trying to focus on and just recognizing them and paying attention to the work that they're doing. Because if you're a leader in the new RSO it's it's a difficult process. And sometimes we'll even walk them through it and how you manage it, or we're connecting to the right people for it. Yeah, just in general. It's, it's, it's, it's tough. leadership positions are tough, but we're here to support you. And we're just here to, you know, really embrace what being a rebel means and just trying to help you become as successful as can be.
Unknown Speaker 27:31
Yep. You know, just before we before we kind of end it for today, I will say that, um, just remember about the events coming up next week, like I said, on Wednesday, we will be having the Lunch and Learn with different students who are involved in, like, political organizations. So like, either the parties or like actual orgs, to talk about ways to get involved with political campaigns. So whether it be volunteering, you know, or whatever, whatever that looks like for you, whatever your skill set, because I will say, political campaigns do require a lot of different skill sets. So, you know, if you're interested in this, or if you're interested in any other events, we did post the full week schedule for lunch and learn, because there are going to be various departments that are going to be involved in this week long voter education process. Take a look at our Instagram at at UNLV season, that's UNLV CSUN. And get to get to know all those events. And then we also just as a reminder, we have the low key art therapy event going on next Thursday at 232 30 to 430. And go ahead and make some fun with us. But until then, we'll see y'all next week.
Unknown Speaker 28:49
Thank you all for listening. To find more details do visit www.unlv.edu/ces UI.
Unknown Speaker 28:57
And if you guys want to stay up to date with more events, go ahead and follow us at at UNLV CSUN.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai