SGA collaborates with cultural student organizations in Multicultural Week
Representatives from SGA tabled in SU's Schine Student Center on Monday afternoon to kick off its Multicultural Week events. Tara Deluca | Asst. Photo Editor
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Syracuse University’s Student Government Association launched its annual Multicultural Week Monday, entering a stretch of programming with activities from interactive artmaking to screening of a recent Academy Award winning film.
From Monday to Saturday SGA will collaborate with several of SU’s cultural student organizations, allowing students to engage with the cultural patchwork that comprises the student body.
The goal is to connect students with students of various backgrounds and foster cultural cross-communication, Janese Fayson, executive vice president of SGA, said. The organizer of last year’s festivities, she said she is challenging students to “step outside their comfort zone.”
“We really just aim to target all different ethnicities, different cultures, different races,” Fayson said.
Syracuse University encompasses students from nearly every state and international representation from five continents, Fayson said.
While this celebration of the diversity present at SU is only a week, SGA President German Nolivos said students’ varied backgrounds are part of the university’s framework.
“Syracuse has forever been a diverse community, and it is really important for student government to be at the forefront of events and activities celebrating multicultural communities on campus,” Nolivos said.
Tommy DaSilva, chair of SGA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee — who tabled for SGA on Monday during its kickoff event — described the importance of cooperation among organizations.
“We try to collaborate on every single event,” DaSilva said. “Cross-cultural communication is important… if they’re willing to work with us on an event, we’re willing to work with them.”
For a university of over 15,000 undergraduate students from a vast breadth of cultural origins, DaSilva said representing every single students’ culture is a significant challenge for a one-week period. This, he said, calls for the necessity of working with student groups to ensure inclusion.
While Monday’s event consists of tabling in the Schine Student Center for the afternoon, beginning Tuesday there will be daily events alongside registered student organizations.
Tuesday, will feature a Multicultural Dance Clinic at the Barnes Center at The Arch with Cuse Krew, SU’s K-Pop community, and Kalabash, SU’s Caribbean dance troupe. On Wednesday, Academy Award Winning film “Sinners” starring Michael B. Jordan, who won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, will be screened in the Hall of Languages.
An Indigenous bead workshop hosted by Indigenous Students at Syracuse will be held at 113 Euclid on Thursday, and Friday is Gem Paint Night with the African Student Union in Schine.
Finally, Saturday concludes the festivities with a grocery trolley to the CNY Regional Food Market and Asia Food Market, giving students access to cultural products not commonly found in chain grocers.
Highlighting the collaborators’ mutual goal of creating “shared senses of belonging,” Nolivos emphasized the importance of working in step with other organizations to organize.
“All the events are partnerships… and giving opportunities for organizations to collaborate with us, for us to collaborate with them and learn from each other, gives each other resources,” Nolivos said.
