Iowa State Student Government held a town hall meeting on Tuesday regarding current campus climate and future plans for the panel of senators.

The panel of the meeting was made up of four senators — Wyatt Scheu, the human sciences senator; Natalie Pellegrino, the director of sexual misconduct prevention; Rachel Barnes, the senior director of student services; and Julian Neely, the director of diversity and inclusion. Vice President Cody Smith served as the mediator for the panel. 

The common consensus of the senators regarding what they want to achieve for campus climate this year was the need for belonging.

“We want everyone to feel included,” said Scheu. “If you don’t feel like you’re included, you’ll feel like you don’t belong, and we want every student here to belong here and say ‘I am a cyclone and I’m proud to be a cyclone.’”

These senators are making this happen through various new solutions, including events, promotions and other means of impact. For example, Neely’s plan to put a spotlight on DACA on campus. 

“In Diversity and Inclusion, we really want to put a focus on DACA and so we’re working on Donuts for DACA,” said Neely. “Students can write a letter to one of our state representatives, bring it, and get a Krispy Kreme Donut. There’s no Krispy Kreme in Ames, so this really brings incentive to get involved with it.”

Also included in the major topics was the launch of Greendot at Iowa State, as well as the purpose for the switch to Greendot this year.

“This is different because Greendot isn’t just four people. It’s everyone,” said Pellegrino. “It’s things like making a post online, or a Greendot laptop sticker and when someone sees it they ask, ‘Hey what’s that?’ And it creates a Domino effect.”

The senators all discussed wanting to reach out to students, and be a voice to the voiceless, but they also discussed the lack of students reaching out to them. At the last town hall meeting, only one student attended, so making themselves approachable was a concern for several of them. 

“I want students to feel comfortable reaching out to us,” said Scheu. “People can come into our meetings on Wednesdays, or to our Office in the student office space.”

Student turnout was much more successful this time however, with multiple students voicing their concerns during the open forum. One in particular was Heather Dunn, who is a senior this year in accounting who stood up immediately when the floor was open to questions.

“I just recently came out, identified as a transgender woman,” said Dunn. “It’s totally new to me. Now I go by Heather.”

At this point, every shuffle in the room completely stopped, and all eyes were on her. 

“I’m in the College of Business, and I know we have gender neutral bathrooms scattered across the university, but there is none in the college of business,” said Dunn. “I’m going to be taking hormones soon, so if I really need to use the bathroom, I don’t want to walk clear across central campus. What can Iowa State do to alleviate this?”

Student Government members jumped in right away, ready to address her concerns. Vice President Cody Smith being the first.

“I know that I can’t say tomorrow Gerdin Hall will have a gender all inclusive bathroom,” said Smith. “But I can say I wish you weren’t having that experience, and that you bringing that to us now is going to start the conversation to ensure future generations of students won’t have the same experience.”