On Wednesday, Oct. 17, student leaders from Students for Justice (SFJ) met with Dean of Students Patti Kersten and Interim President Kathleen Murray to discuss the Social Responsibility Committee (SRC) proposal. Historically, SRCs have been used in higher education as a way to determine the ethical implications of certain institutional investments.
Senior Ivy Evrard, junior Clare Friar, first-year Alex Brundieck, first-year Sara Jime and Professor of English and SFJ Advisor Kris Deffenbacher made up the team that presented the proposal to Kersten and Murray.
The student team gave an overview of the proposal, outlining how it would look both administratively and in practice. They emphasized the importance of collaboration as a way to include as many voices in this process as possible. Murray then explained her support for the SRC, but noted that including certain details in the proposal may set the proposal up for success before it is presented to the Investment Committee.
“I want you to know, I think we should have a committee like this. I’m a supporter of this effort,” Murray said in the meeting.
Murray and Kersten proposed a couple of adjustments, particularly around getting staff and alumni involved. Despite Murray’s spoken support, however, SFJ leaders are still met with short deadlines.
They were given less than two weeks to gather staff and alumni support and draft a new proposal, ultimately due on Oct. 30. Friar voiced how frustrating short deadlines can be; even more so when many of the bureaucratic processes have to be created before they can be worked through.
“It’s consistently frustrating to have to meet these really, really, short deadlines and then be met with these really drawn out, long-term bureaucratic processes on their end,” Friar said.
As a way to bridge SFJ with other resources, Murray offered a way for student leaders to communicate with the Investment committee. However, Deffenbacher says that the collaboration is long past due.
“The offer of collaboration with the [Investment] committee, that should have been offered up front,” Deffenbacher said.
After the meeting, Friar indicated that if they did not finish the proposal by the Oct. 30 deadline, SFJ would be required to wait until February, when the Board of Trustees and Investment Committee meets again.
“[We] have to wait months and months and months before this proposal [is seen] or scrambling to get it even looked at [before the deadline],” Friar said.
To learn more about the SRC process and to keep up with SFJ, visit sfj_hamline on Instagram or visit hamlineoracle.com to read the full coverage of the SRC.
