The Undergraduate Council of Students discussed a proposal to establish a new internal executive position overseeing transfer and resumed undergraduate education affairs, heard a presentation by Brown Esports and introduced a proposal to endorse a student group referendum about maintaining accessibility services post-COVID-19 at its general body meeting Wednesday evening.
The proposal to establish a UCS Chair of Transfer and Resumed Undergraduate Education Affairs came about due to concerns over the lack of representation of TRUE students within the Council, said Chair of Academic Affairs Deepak Gupta ’22, who is a transfer student himself.
The lack of representation “means that a lot of the initiatives unique to the TRUE community are not something that are focused on in particular,” Gupta continued. As an example, Gupta said that there was very little support for TRUE students who arrived on campus for the first time last semester and faced the University’s remote learning protocol and distancing restrictions.
If the Council votes to establish the position, Gupta hopes that the representative can begin work on issues unique to the TRUE community, such as advocating for more leniency in the process of transferring credits to Brown and combating loneliness within the community.
The proposed TRUE chair would be an internally-elected position in order to mitigate some TRUE students’ discomfort at the thought of having to run for an elected position, Gupta said.
Also at the meeting, the Brown Esports student group gave a presentation to UCS, during which they asked the Council to endorse their efforts to gain a dedicated physical space on campus for online gaming.
Brown Esports has more than 1,200 members, 200 of whom actively communicate with each other through platforms set up by the group, said Brown Esports Co-President Isaac Kim ’23.
The group hopes to gain a dedicated space on campus in hopes of reducing barriers to gaming, allowing students interested in gaming to come in and use shared equipment at any time, said Brown Esports Co-President Griffin Beels ’21.
A University space would also help the group become more competitive in tournaments, Kim added. Currently, many members of Brown Esports compete in competitive tournaments but are disadvantaged because they do not have access to a wired internet connection, Kim said.
Additionally, the group hopes this space could help the University “become the home for Esports within the Ivy League,” with students coming to Brown to watch and support players in tournaments, Kim continued.
Chair of Campus Life Zane Ruzicka ’23 questioned if UCS should endorse Brown Esports’ request in light of the Council’s other priorities. “The Disability Justice Cultural Center is still not in existence and the UFLi center (is) inadequate,” he said.
Beels noted that the purpose of the space was not just for gaming but to make the activity more accessible to students, and reiterated that the necessity of the space stems from their current inability to offer technology to students who may want to get into gaming.
Also at the meeting, Jai’el Toussaint ’22 proposed a motion to endorse Project Let’s Erase The Stigma’s ballot referendum that calls for the University to maintain accessibility measures in classes after the pandemic.
Council members were supportive of the proposal, with one member noting that Project LETS gained the 300 student signatures needed to get placed on the ballot in under 24 hours.
Recordings and other accessibility measures put in place during the pandemic “provide so much support for various students on campus,” said general body member Elaine Wang ’24.
UCS will vote on the motion to endorse the referendum before its next general body meeting.
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