The New School’s Social Justice Committee recently held elections for new student representatives, with seven individuals chosen to help lead the committee’s work in raising awareness for social justice initiatives at the university.

The newly-elected representatives are Leysa Cerswell from The New School for Social Research; Drew Goldsmith, Isa Wong and Mui Ying Kwan from The New School for Public Engagement; Rashid Owoyele and Pablo Palacios from Parsons; and Kevin Park from Lang. They join faculty, staff and administrators in supporting the committee’s mission of addressing “economic, social, and cultural divisions related to identity and to our institutional and personal practices and policies.”

Cerswell, a psychology major, said she was “excited” to join the committee, and stressed the committee’s importance in “raising awareness” for social justice issues at the university, particularly among students.

“I think it’s important for students to have the resources and support they need to take action on the issues they care about”, she said, citing The New School’s Social Justice Resource Center as one of the ways students can access information on topics such as gender and race equality, food justice, and disability issues.

In addition to raising awareness, the student representatives’ other responsibilities include “helping organize social justice events or activities on campus” and “being an advocate and letting people know there is a student venue for social justice issues on campus,” according to NSSR student Chris Crews, one of the committee’s co-chairs.

The Social Justice Committee’s next step is filling any remaining faculty seats to ensure that various working groups within the committee have an adequate number of participants.

“One big piece has been getting the new students on board and up to speed,” Crews said. “Another is filling the rest of the empty seats for staff or faculty, so that moving forward we have a full committee to support this work.”

While much of the committee’s agenda for the year is still being determined, a couple of specific initiatives are currently underway. Crews said the committee is liaising with the administration regarding the university’s upcoming Campus Climate Assessment, as well as the ongoing Middle States Review process.