Inspire UI runs on a platform of diversity and inclusion

Inspire UI is one of the three tickets running in the UISG election on April 3 and 4. Their ticket includes members with a variety of experiences that they think will help UI students.

Katie Goodale

Candidates Madhari Belkale (left) and Alexia Sánchez pose for a portrait in Stanley residence hall on April 1, 2019. Sánchez and Belkale are running for president and vice president for Inspire UI.

Kayli Reese, News Editor
April 1, 2019

The symbol for the University of Iowa Student Government ticket Inspire UI is a sun, which candidates on the ticket associate with shedding light on various issues around campus.

Inspire UI comprises 20 senators, presidential candidate Alexia Sánchez, and vice-presidential candidate Madhuri Belkale.

“Students at the university have inspired us … so now it’s our turn to Inspire UI,” Belkale said.

Sánchez and Belkale also are the first two recorded women of color who have run for the executive ticket as a duo.

“To us, that’s not about representation necessarily and saying that we represent women of color or we represent certain identities, but it’s rather about we understand what it’s like to not be heard,” Belkale said.

Sánchez said she is working on establishing a Latinx LLC, which is part of Inspire UI’s platform. Hopefully, she said, the Latinx living-learning community would begin in 2020 to provide resources and mentors in the community that the Young, Gifted, and Black LLC has provided.

“As we all saw and had conversations about regarding the Latinx community here on campus and how that dialogue is very much neglected, I think bringing something like that into the university can not only promote more equity and justice but have that conversation not just stop there but continue,” Sánchez said.

She also hopes to expand implicit bias training on campus to teach faculty and staff about microaggressions many students face in the classroom, she said.

Belkale also promoted transparency and accountability in UISG to provide students with more knowledge about the organization. This would include bringing back weekly funding updates, improving the website and meeting livestreams, and changing senate bill names so people know what they involve, she said.

Senatorial candidate Ruth Kahssai said she’s very passionate about Inspire UI’s initiative to put quality menstrual products in every UI building and in each restroom, because not everyone who identifies as a woman uses women’s restrooms.

She also said she wants to see diversity in the staff at University Counseling Service.

“For a lot of identifies, counseling service or mental health is not something that’s commonly talked about, it’s not a comfortable thing to talk about, and something that would make them more comfortable is to have that representation at the table,” Kahssai said.

Senatorial candidate Guowei Qi said Inspire UI would also like to aid in education affordability by ensuring open-source textbooks, making graduation more affordable, and making graduation requirements more consistent so students don’t have to stay for an unplanned semester.

Senator candidate Anna Correa, said starting a farmers’ market for students is another initiative on the ticket’s platform.

“It also helps have access to nutritious, cheaper, fresh foods,” she said. “We know as college students it’s really easy to go home and make ramen at night, but having access to fresh produce is really important.”

Inspire UI includes a variety of different experiences that make the party stand out, Correa said, including members in 58 student organizations, 19 different majors, and 39 collective semesters of UISG experience.

Sánchez said that while the different experiences are important to have in UISG, collaboration on initiatives and institutionalizing them is essential to showcasing all voices in UISG.

“We can show off these numbers all we want, and that’s 100 percent completely valid, but we also need to carry out those collaborations and conversations, too,” she said.