PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Tahisha Fields, President of Graduate Student Assembly at Baruch and CUNY University Student Senate
1:24:02
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154 sec
Tahisha Fields, a newly elected member of USS and president of the Graduate Student Assembly at Baruch, provided testimony on student engagement in voting and policy advocacy. She emphasized the importance of making politics more accessible and relatable to students, and advocated for free MetroCards to alleviate financial stress on commuter students.
- Highlighted the need to make political information more digestible for students to increase engagement
- Stressed the value of intersectionality between older and younger students in understanding shared needs
- Advocated for free MetroCards to reduce transportation costs and allow students to focus more on their studies and civic engagement
Tahisha Fields
1:24:02
Hello?
1:24:04
Hello.
1:24:04
My name is Tahisha Fields, and I've been newly elected to USS.
1:24:09
I am the new president of graduate student, Assembly And Baroque, and I am a graduate student.
1:24:15
So my perspective for graduate students is very unique because I'm an older graduate student, but a graduate student are not there less.
1:24:23
There are still some students that are not specifically engaged because they don't have the knowledge of what's going on with policies.
1:24:31
I think because politics is not formed in a way that can be digestible for them.
1:24:37
I feel like when a student let governments like the one that I'm leading and the one I'm in with USS, it allows students to understand that just because you may not have the knowledge of what's going on, you can take your voice and be allowed into anything that you advocate for.
1:24:54
I think people mostly students are not aware that you don't have to have full knowledge policy to be in advocacy.
1:25:02
I know that on baroque, we have different kind of policies that are going on, but going in the retreat for USS made it more of a bigger scope for me.
1:25:10
What I can say about the policies of getting more students to be more engaged in voting.
1:25:17
It's more about making it more digestible and more relatable to what their needs are in the current state of mind.
1:25:24
They do see that a lot of things that are going on is more of I can't say it, but, of course, I'm an older student, but some of the younger students want things that are more tangible for them.
1:25:34
And I think when you're allowed the intersectionality of both the older generation and the younger generation to understand that All our needs are the same.
1:25:43
It allows more student engagement.
1:25:45
The other issue that I want to talk about is free metric cards.
1:25:50
Yes.
1:25:51
Being an older student has been a little bit of struggle for me.
1:25:54
I am in a full time mental health counseling program, and I do commute.
1:25:59
All community students are commuters, and they are coming from their homes, their several jobs, and it can be a little expensive.
1:26:07
I feel like if there is a way to alleviate that stress.
1:26:11
It allows students to be more mindful of what's going on in their classes, didn't worry about what bills would have to be tightened in order to get a a Metro card.
1:26:22
So I feel like being in student advocacy and allowing more transferring for students to be engaged and allowing them to register the vote will make it more access for students in all 25 QDs.
1:26:35
Thank you.
