This past week, City on a Hill Press held an interview with DT Amajoyi, commissioner of diversity for the Student Union Assembly (SUA) and College Nine third-year psychology and literature major.
CHP: What exactly is the Student Union Assembly and what does it do for the students at UC Santa Cruz?
Amajoyi: The Student Union Assembly (SUA) is an organization that advocates for students on campus about issues that affect the students in the UCSC community, such as the budget, fee increases and student affairs. SUA deals with both external and internal issues, including diversity, which falls under my purview.
CHP: How long have you been involved with SUA?
Amajoyi: This is my first year as an officer, but I have been involved in SUA since my freshman year. During my freshman year, I interned under the internal vice chair. My second year, I was a volunteer helping with voter registration and outreach to the students. I was also the African/Black Student Alliance representative.
CHP: What is your position in SUA and what does this position entail?
Amajoyi: As the commissioner of diversity, most of my work falls with identity-based organizations and resource centers, such as the Ethnic Resource Centers, EOP and the Women’s Center.
CHP: Why did you choose to run for this position?
Amajoyi: My inspiration came from my work as a coordinator for Student Initiated Outreach, which provides outreach to students with different identities from disadvantaged communities. I was on the board of directors for Destination Higher Education (DHE), which worked with students with African, Black, African-American and Caribbean identities. A Step Forward (ASF) worked with Asian and Pacific Islander identities and Oportunidades Rumbo A La Educacion (ORALE) worked with students with Latino identities. Some social stigmas from these communities may discourage the students to aspire for higher education. Through that program we show the students what higher education could be like. That was beautiful to me. I cannot speak for the other organizations, but during this weekend-long event, DHE doubled the student Intent to Register rate. I began to think this doesn’t just have to be a weekend-long thing. How cool would it be if this was a year-long thing?
