Highlighting the great achievements of our student body
We at the Technique attempt to embody the voice of the student body. Through many of our consensus discussions and published articles, we are critical of organizations, movements and laws. We comment on administration, the Institute as a whole and the experiences of students. However, it is remiss to ignore the amazing work done by student organizations here on campus year after year. Thus, in the final consensus of the semester, we wish to highlight some of the student organizations who have thoroughly impressed us, and have brought great initiatives to Tech.
To start, we would like to acknowledge the Tech Muslim Student Association. They raised an extremely impressive $73,823 to send to Gaza through fundraising. They also worked hard to foster a strong sense of community during a time of immense hardship. Outside of religious student organizations, other affinity groups made large strides during this year. The Tech Filipino Student Association made large expansions this year and even conducted a large festival titled Halo Halo, chock-full of games, food, raffling and tables from various organizations. Hispanic sororities and fraternities were recently re-chartered and are currently in the process of joining the Multicultural Pan-hellenic Council.
The Divine Nine Plaza, as spearheaded by the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), was unveiled this year. The plaza honors the hard work of Black students at Tech and functions as an initiative to recognize these Greek organizations at the Institute. The plaza will also offer a place for NPHC organizations to foster community and programming.
The Under-Represented Groups in Education (U.R.G.E) forums, conducted by the Tech chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in coordination with Student Government Association (SGA), put a spotlight on Tech’s history with underrepresented minorities. They also spearheaded an U.R.G.E. March for Diversity through Price Gilbert Library to promote diversity, equity and inclusion at the Institute. Another example of promotion of diversity at the Institute is that for the first time in history, both of Tech’s homecoming royalty were women.
Along that vein, the Tech Organization for Social Activism conducted open mic nights, providing an outlet for expression, storytelling and sharing of experiences. The installation of the Veterans Walk of Honor display on campus, as conducted by the Veterans Resource Center, honored the hard work and dedication of retired veterans, while also addressing the Institute’s military history.
The community garden is also now fully open. Students meet once a week on Saturdays, growing a plethora of vegetables. They even conduct cooking demonstrations in the garden, as well as creative gardening workshops with farmers from actual farms. Other community-driven organizations, such as the Tech Community Market, increased the number of student sellers in the market, and the number of thrift shops on campus increased overall. Many of these thrift stores were created by students alone, such as Sigma Nu Secondhand and CKG.
Overall, our sense of community on campus has strengthened. One new organization, Campus Cats, works together to feed and take care of the cats that live around our buildings. At this point, they are even raising money to pay for one cat’s surgery. Parents with Pups moved to a bigger scale this year, with far more dogs, and even food and Girl Scout cookies. The initiative has even begun at other universities.
With our homecoming men’s football and men’s basketball wins, students rushed the field and court, respectively, celebrating the win and rejuvenating our school spirit and sporting energy. Though short-lived, we appreciated the Tech Hockey bus charter, and hope to see it again next year with even more prolonged success.
While we cannot highlight every single organization that has made great strides in this year, we applaud every single student and student organization for their efforts to make the Institute a better place each and every day. We cultivate our experience and community together, and no matter the circumstances, we will continue to bind together to create a better tomorrow at Tech.