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garden/SILC.md

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Gil's History of SILC

  • I've linked articles here which relate to significant moments in Texas Tech student activist history of the past 9 years
    • Many of these are inciting events for student groups, some of these just feature important events or people
  • A timeline of diversity at Texas Tech (Southwest Collection): https://archive.ph/n6RMk

  • 2015

    • Greek life student death and "Slogan Incident" (2014)
      • https://archive.ph/8LFGh (content warning: rape culture, racial microaggressions)
      • The "Slogan Incident" generated a lot of outrage about rape culture within Greek life
      • This led into one of the largest Take Back The Night events at TTU
        • It was organized by Tech Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance that November 2015
        • Some/many fraternities were required to attend that fall (side note: that did not go over well)
    • Impact Tech
      • Becomes integrated with Texas Tech University under the TTU Risk Intervention and Safety Education (RISE) office
      • Impact Tech was a peer health education student organization which was advised by Dr. Sofia Chapman
      • Dr. Chapman in 2014 was the Managing Director of the TTU Office of Student Conduct; she is now an Associate Dean of the TTU School of Law and its Director of Diversity and Wellness
      • I view this as a significant example of the University co-opting student efforts and institutionalizing them
        • Not always a bad thing but transforms the work and changes its structure
        • Often effectively reduces the power/impact of student voices
        • e.g. what the RISE Office does isn't always "true" student leadership - the students have become more like employees in most instances
      • After this point, university policy and higher ed administrative culture more strongly shaped the health education which peer educators provide

  • 2016

    • Ben Sharp - 92nd Student Body President
    • OCR Complaint filed against Texas Tech by former SGA Grad VP Saba Nafees - https://archive.ph/iCfzK
    • The presidential election which took place this year was an inciting event for a lot of student activism
    • The 2016-2017 academic year's political tumult was the climate which greeted many original SILCies like me when we first enrolled at TTU

  • 2017

    • Dima Alhesan is arrested by Lubbock Police Department for highway obstruction
      • Dima was leading a protest against the executive order on immigration
      • I was in attendance at the protect with other members of the Tech Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, which Dima was also associated with
    • Jody Randall becomes the director of the newly established Office of LGBTQIA, later renamed the Office of LGBTQIA Education & Engagement, which originally reported to both the Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and the Center for Campus Life
      • This office began providing institutional support to organizations like the Gay-Straight Alliance (renamed the Gender and Sexuality Association in 2019 - I suggested that name, by the way)
    • Robbie Meyer - 93rd Student Body President
      • Statement against bigotry, discrimination re: Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally and car attack - https://archive.ph/w1uZD
    • Lawrence Schovanec - 17th President of Texas Tech University
    • Active shooter situation on campus - https://archive.ph/sZkKu
    • Sexism in the TTU Biology department https://archive.ph/jFf8i

  • 2018

    • Sean Lewis - 94th Student Body President
    • This year the then-Office of LGBTQIA hosted the first Big 12 LGBTQIA and Allies Summit
    • "Frat Chat" incident (content warning: xenophobic statements)
      • https://archive.ph/pc3Jd
      • https://archive.ph/XQjLa
      • https://archive.ph/XM8mP
      • The "Frat Chat" incident - violently racist/xenophobic statements made on GroupMe by the Interfraternity Council (IFC) president - drew much attention to a climate of racism within Texas Tech's Greek organizations
      • For many students this was a confirmation of what we had already believed about Greek life and what gave us unease around TTU's predominantly white fraternities and sororities
      • Also around the time of this incident, many Black and Hispanic women formerly in Panhellenic (CPH) sororities shared stories about their experiences with racism within Texas Tech's Greek community on social media, some of which went viral among people of color students
      • This event was just one of many similar incidents over the years, but the fallout of this incident inspired many students to get involved
        • This coincided with significant efforts from Black students to get Texas Tech to provide institutional support especially to the Black Caucus
        • These things led to the formation of the Council of Councils (COC), which later became Student Intersectional Leadership Council (SILC)
    • Dr. Carol Sumner hired as VP of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • https://archive.ph/CgU33
      • Replacing Dr. Elizabeth Sharpe, Interim VP and Director of the Women's & Gender Studies (WGS) Program
      • Oversees Office of Institutional Diversity (faculty/staff-facing office) and Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (student-facing office)
    • Cross-Cultural Academic Advancement Center name is retired, Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion name becomes more prominent
    • Council of Councils
      • Began with I3LD (Intersectional, Intercultural, and Interpersonal Leadership Development) which grouped together the programs which eventually were named Raider Education and Student Intersectional Leadership Council (our offices were next to each other in Doak Hall) and later reorganized under the Office of Intercultural Education & Engagement
      • This group of students began meeting on weekends during the Fall 2018 semester
      • During this academic year, Council of Councils, based on the Council of Coalitions at Dr. Sumner and Jade Silva Tovar's previous institution, Arizona State University, focused a lot on leadership education and intersectional development
      • Our first Director, Nefertiti Beck, along with Jade Silva Tovar, who was then Senior Director and is now Assistant Vice President of DEI, were focused a lot on guiding the group towards organically recruiting other student leaders
      • Council of Councils included students from the Raiderland Native American Student Association, SACNAS, Black Student Association, the Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, African Students Organization, Filipino Student Association, Gender and Sexuality Association, the Tech Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, the Women's Leadership Initiative, Tech Iota Iota Iota (WGS Honor Society), Student Government Association, and the Residence Halls Association
      • At peak, CoC had about 30-40 student contacts
      • Most of this group's activities were focused on determining the appropriate structure and recruiting others
        • This effort took a very long time
        • It took almost an entire year and a half to make meager progress on our first constitution and bylaws
        • By the time we had renamed ourselves SILC, a lot of students were already disillusioned (or had left/graduated)

  • 2019

    • David Rivero - 95th Student Body President
    • In March 2019, Council of Councils hosted the first ever Phenomenal Women of Texas Tech event
    • Tech Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance
      • https://archive.ph/Axvvm
      • I organized this year's Take Back the Night in collaboration with IFC, Panhellenic, RISE, GSA, and some other students
      • This year's TBTN was a little controversial because the Director of RISE had reached out to Matt Wells, our football coach at that time, to be a speaker at TBTN without furnishing notification to Tech FMLA
      • The ensuing fallout from that brought me into SILC
        • I had an emotionally charged confrontation about that incident prior to the LGBTQIA Summit
        • That year, the plenary speaker Dr. Tracie Gilbert gave a talk about intersectionality and held a private space for queer/trans students of color
        • In that private space, I introduced an idea for a "marginalized students union" at Texas Tech, and after the discussion ended, Amelia Xie invited me to join Council of Councils - renamed SILC in May 2019 at the same time the first representatives had been elected
    • Student Intersectional Leadership Council
      • In May 2019, SILC elected the first set of presidents and vice presidents for each Coalition:
        • APID (Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi - Arab was added later this year)
          • MC de Guia (P)
          • Gil Locaylocay Caley (VP)
        • LGBTQIA+
          • Matt Hernandez (P)
          • Blessen Brocke (VP)
        • Women
          • Ariel Bellatin (P)
          • Karla Quiñones (VP)
        • Latinx
          • Alex Figueroa (P)
          • Erika Galindo (VP)
        • Black/African
          • Kenna Miller (P)
          • Isaiah Mayfield (P)
        • International
          • Nanette Kaye Dolera (P)
          • Rosa Salazar (VP)
        • Indigenous
          • John Kabl Psakwne Wilkerson (Kaheeka)
          • Martha Bejarano-Moreno (Kaheeka)
      • Indigenous People's Heritage Month 2019
      • Having been dissatisfied with how SILC had slowed down a lot in the fall, I wrote a four page letter about SILC and what I felt needed to change
      • Nonetheless, the conflict during the summer had run its course by that point, and many members had made the decision to quit that November 2019
      • This left SILC with only four members - myself (APIDA), Nanette Kaye Dolera (International), Blessen Brocke (LGBTQIA+), and Daniel Pimbi (International)
    • Tech eSports Discord Incident (content warnings: racism, hate speech)
      • https://archive.ph/wTmJR
      • https://archive.ph/hJPPM
      • Allies United was a student coalition I helped form during this time, in coordination with some former SILC members, other student leaders on campus, and the person who originally brought attention to the incident and highlighted their harassment within the Tech eSports Association
      • Allies United's demands for better DEI policies at Texas Tech were co-opted by the Black Student Association, which presented its own similar set of demands at a townhall with university administrators in January 2020
        • These demands and the townhall provided the impetus for the planning and building of the Black Cultural Center
        • Later plans for a Hispanic Cultural Center, an Intercultural Center, and an Interfaith Space were added
      • Around this time, some of my peers and I had 1:1 meetings with Dr. Sumner in her office about the incident and about our efforts - after my meeting, I redirected a lot of my energies into SILC

  • 2020

  • 2021

  • 2022

    • Austin Phillips - 98th Student Body President

  • 2023

    • Joel Rivero - 99th Student Body President