By Betty Abate
At the Student Government Association meeting on the 27th of October, the conversation started with concerns about the campus being in a food desert and drifts to accessible menstrual products and contraceptive risk mitigation.
SGA allows for an open floor segment during their meetings where people in attendance can voice concerns. A student named Jackie brought up the difficulty of eating on campus.
She states that there are not enough healthy food options and the Peak Cafe and The Crooked Cup are unaffordable and compares their food to gas station hot food.
“We need to make nutritious and wholesome food accessible on campus,” said Jackie. The vice president of SGA, Jonah, agrees with Jackie in the need for on campus hot food that’s more accessible.
“We have been thinking about this problem and it would be a long term process because it was voted away,” Jonah stated.
He then educated her on how prior to the pandemic, there was a fully working kitchen in the cafe that cooked hot food but it was voted away by the students when Covid happened.
After that, Jackie informed SGA that there are restrooms that have menstrual products but not always and not in all bathrooms.
She said that there are many people who attend Front Range that need these products but don’t have access because of affordability.
Kendall, the co-advisor for Student Gov, claims that the products found in the certain bathrooms are donated by people unassociated with the school and the school has not looked into providing any sanitary products at the moment.
Jackie also brought up concerns as why there are no contraceptives on campus even though the students that attend front range are likely to be sexually active.
“It would be good risk management if we had condoms available on campus to help mitigate the risk of STIs and unintended pregnancies.”
The members of SGA pledged to Jackie that although these issues are valid to the betterment of the college, the president, Colleen Simpson, would have to back these initiatives which they aren’t confident she will with the reorganization of the college taking place.
The meeting continued on as the open floor segment had closed. The SGA meets in the student lounge in Longs Peak every Wednesday at 4:30pm and is open to the public.