In an effort to foster community and build connections with local politicians, the University of Iowa Undergraduate Student Government will host a Q&A session with Iowa City City Council members on Feb. 11.
At USG’s Tuesday meeting, Ava Martinez, Deputy City Liaison, announced that the Iowa City City Council members will appear at the Iowa Memorial Union at next week’s meeting.
City Councilors Laura Bergus, Megan Alter, Josh Moe, Shawn Harmsen, Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague, and Mayor Pro Tem Mazahir Salih, will discuss and answer questions in a town hall-style meeting with USG members from 7 to 9 p.m.
Martinez reached out to city council members to learn what questions they wanted or didn’t want to answer. The response Martinez received was that councilors are “open to anything.”
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“It’s really important for [city council members] to get face time with students. The more connected they feel to us, the more we’re at the forefront of their minds,” Martinez said. “It’s also important for the students to get to see them and get to know what they do because a lot of what they do really impacts us, and it’s actually pretty fun and interesting.”
Martinez said they hope to encourage students to get involved in city government to ultimately understand and feel at home in their community.
“I think that fostering community and connection is really, really important,” Martinez said.
Martinez advised the senators not to ask questions regarding the new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion changes, as they said the Iowa City City Council is not able to act on that topic at the UI, or about adding more light posts by fraternity and sorority houses.
Martinez suggested that senators’ personal opinions be held until they can speak to city councilors after the Q&A to avoid using too much of the councilors’ and senators’ time. USG also hopes to avoid questions the council does not readily have answers for. Senators were also recommended to dress business-professional to show respect to city councilors.