At the halfway point of Student Body President Jess Errico’s term, the Executive Branch has started major projects such as housing villages and initiatives to help universities look at applicants and more holistically help students.

On the platform of Errico, a fifth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Student Body Vice President Meredith Spence-Beaulieu, a fifth-year Ph.D. student studying entomology, the then-candidates looked to make changes on eight separate areas on campus.

Major accomplishments for the administration so far, according to Errico, are the PACK Meal Share program between dining and Student Government, projects surrounding voter engagement, advocating alongside NC State for the Talley one-stop voting site and major progress in campus childcare options in partnership with Meredith College.

Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity competency training, which is mentioned in the platform, is currently still in planning stages, according to Errico.

On Monday, Oct. 15, members of Student Government along with faculty members and other students participated in an accessibility walk that highlighted areas on campus that needed to be altered to make more accessible to all students.

Errico also mentioned how she and Spence-Beaulieu have been working to address the needs of first-generation students through attending events such as First in the Pack and new student outreach focus groups. Through this, Errico said that she plans on meeting with partners such as New Student Programs to roll out new events.

The platform also states an initiative called Beyond the Box, which calls for a policy change for stating a student’s criminal history on an application.

“Due to a UNC System policy, all prospective students must mark whether they have had a criminal history when applying for admissions,” the platform statement reads. “Due to issues with the criminal justice system, this disproportionately affects people of color.”

According to Errico, at the previous Association of Student Governments (ASG) meeting, Beyond the Box was sponsored by NC State, presented and unanimously passed. She said that their next course of action will be pursuing advocacy on the state level.

Affordability

The Executive Branch has been working with NC State Libraries and the bookstore to make lower cost options of course readings and textbooks better advertised to students through social media, physical signage in the bookstores and eventually establish visible options when students view their course material.

The Executive Branch is currently advocating for a zero percent increase in tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students for the 2018-19 academic year. Errico said there are also sufficient funds to go toward initiatives that would help students.

“In addition to these being the lowest tuition increases in 10 years, there was also more money going to financial aid,” Errico said. “This is partially because there was some state legislature guidelines, Board of Governors guidelines that limited how much could go to financial, and this year we are finally at a place where we are able to do that. But in that meeting, it was student proposed that the recommended numbers for financial aid be increased from $1.7 million to $2 million.”

Housing and Campus Life

On the platform, gender inclusive housing and creating Women of Color and Pride Villages were large goals for the student body president and vice president. In a recent ASG meeting, support for these initiatives was gained and according to Errico, ASG President Bettylenah Njaramba charged to use her seat on the UNC Board of Governors to advocate for the villages.

On campus, two separate task forces have been created to gage student opinion, statistics and logistics of the initiatives. Members of the task forces include Sam Chan, a third-year studying political science and communication, and Shelsey Hall, a fourth-year studying political science and philosophy, who are also Diversity Outreach co-directors.

Academic

On the academic front, Errico has had many conversations, especially with the Faculty Senate Chair Carolyn Bird regarding the creation of open syllabi for students when they register for classes, as well as trans-inclusive syllabi that would let students know their professors will use the correct names and pronouns.

Student Health

The creation of the Wolfpack Wellness campaign has helped further the goals of awareness of culturally competent services for students and highlighting Question, Persuade & Refer (QPR) Suicide Prevention trainings, Errico said.

“It’s the job of the Wellness Department to work in tandem and alongside to support those efforts to make sure we are reaching the broadest audience we can,” Errico said. “The Wellness Department right now is tasked with these two components of the platform and helping see those through to the end, but also leaving a sustainable model that isn’t just the push for this year.”

Transportation

According to Errico, NCSU Transportation addressed major concerns that were on Errico and Spence-Beaulieu’s platform through their own student feedback, and the two parties continue to have routine meetings discussing surface concerns to help students.

Student Government

Errico talked about new ways the executive staff is trying to engage with the student body through mediums such as social media so they are aware of administrative initiatives.

“It’s been a very validating experience being able to interface with administrators and say ‘I have these materials, is there any reason why I can’t share them with students,’” Errico said. “And unless it’s something that happened in closed meetings, it has always been ‘yes’ which makes that a lot easier.”

Sustainability

Initiatives such as more access to bike parking and promotion of paperless products have been set forth by other campus partners such as NCSU Transportation and the Facilities Division.

According to Errico, the Executive Branch is now looking into getting rain protection in locations where students park their bikes long-term.

The branch is also measuring how sustainable their events are in an effort to promote eco-friendly alternatives. For Student Government events, no paper products have been used for things such as advertising.

Each Student Government, specifically Executive Branch, event has been assessed by sustainable event certification through the university, from planning to the execution of the event. According to Errico, the expectation for each event held is that it is sustainable event certified.

Students can visit Technician’s YouTube channel to watch the entire interview with Student Body President Errico.