The new group of Student Senators had their first plenary February 24. Since then, as the Liaison to the Student Senate, I can say that the journey the Senators have traveled and the experiences we underwent have tested our organizing skills, our patience, our accountability and our strength as students and as members of a representative body. Like our peers and fellow community members, the events that have taken place since the beginning of the semester have been both difficult to understand and challenging to endure.

However, I am proud to say that we, in unity with the administration and the student body, are keeping our focus on goals for community building, engaging allyship, and fostering a deeper understanding of minority groups on and around Oberlin’s campus in order to build the foundations for an improved, more insightful Oberlin campus culture.

Student Senate is proud to announce that the Office of the President has donated mon- ies to create a new Community Building Fund for Senate to use, in collaboration with other groups on campus, to put on campus-wide events that bring Oberlin’s campus together in a unique and natural way. We look forward to begin working in partnership with other organizations and departments on campus to put on dynamic events that bring students together. We are open to ideas from all ends of campus, and we hope that with the fund we will be able to wrap up the end of our semester in a more communal spirit than the one we began with.

We would like to acknowledge all members of Oberlin’s community for their strength and passion in the events during and following March 4, 2013, and we would especially like to commend communities on campus who have been most affected by the incidents that have taken place since the beginning of the semester for their willingness to openly speak out about their past and present experiences. We hope for healing in all communities on campus and that the visions of change imagined by community members will actually become visible and permanent changes.