CAT HUANG

for Student Assembly President

  • Former VIce President of Diversity and inclusion, Transfer Representative

    Current Executive Vice President of the Student Assembly

    I transferred into Cornell two years ago in Fall 2018, from the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville. I moved into my freshman year dorm at UVA only two weeks after the deadly white supremacist rallies that happened on UVA's campus and spent my first year of college learning from student and faculty activists in their fight for racial justice at a university struggling to reconcile with its history. Having seen firsthand the importance of student advocacy and action, I ran for Student Assembly only a few weeks after transferring into Cornell. In my two years at Cornell, I have served as the Transfer Student Representative, the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, and directly-elected Executive Vice President. Check out some of the initiatives I am most proud to have led while on the SA below:

     

    Check out each resolution by clicking on the green hyperlinks!

     

  • Platform point 1: Health & Safety

    Health and Safety means protecting the most vulnerable populations of our Cornell community, addressing COVID-19 concerns raised by students and student workers, advocating for racial justice on campus, and defunding and disarming the Cornell University Police Department (CUPD).

    Health and Safety = Addressing COVID-19 Concerns + Racial Justice

    Health: We've seen how systemic injustices in healthcare disproportionately affect students from underrepresented communities, such as our DACA/undocumented students, first-generation low income, Black, Indigenous and students of color, and I vow to advocate for better healthcare treatment for all.

    • I have been working with student activists over the past few weeks to advocate for our students who are suffering unacceptable healthcare treatment after being diagnosed with COVID-19 on campus. If elected as President, I will push for the following:  
      • Mental health support for our students in quarantine
      • Equitable healthcare treatment for our low-income and DACA/undocumented students 
      • An immediate review of the Student Heath Insurance Plan
     
    TW below: Sexual assault/violence, police

    Safety: Black students, students of color, DACA and undocumented students, womxn, and survivors of sexual violence deserve to feel safe in our dorms, our classrooms, and on our campus. I am committed to CUPD oversight, and ultimately, disarming and defunding of the CUPD. I will also fight to protect survivors from the harmful Title IX policies as newly mandated by Secretary DeVos and our DACA students from ICE actions on campus.

    • This past summer and semester, I have been working with student activists and the Cornell Abolitionist Revolutionary Society on efforts to examine the CUPD. If elected as President, I will push for the following:

      • Oversight of the CUPD

        • We need transparency about CUPD's source of funding. Beyond transparency, we need a guarantee that if Cornell is facing budget cuts because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that administration will take cuts out of the CUPD budget before touching any other piece of the budget, especially our offices of student support, diversity and multicultural services, and our academic departments. I will advocate for a longterm push to ensure that the CUPD is disarmed, demilitarized and defunded in its whole.

      • Flexible Reslife and RA/RF Policies on marijuana

        • As a Resident Fellow on West Campus, I'm more than familiar with the Cornell policy that requires all RAs on North and South Campus and all Resident Fellows on West Campus to call the police if we ever smell marijuana in our dorms. This is unacceptable, unnecessary, and needlessly puts students at risk by bringing the police directly into our dorms. If elected, I promise to work with the Residential Student Council, and RAs and RFs across campus to advocate for a flexible policy that allows the RAs the choice of when to contact the police, instead of forcing us to call the police.

      • Supporting survivors and student-led efforts to navigate the new Title IX policies
        • The Trump administration has passed restrictive new policies in regards to survivor's rights on college campuses. I promise to stand with survivors on campus, work with student organizations to support survivors with these new policies, and continue my work with the Office of Student Government Relations in resisting these policies.
      • Advocating for mandatory faculty training on protecting DACA/undocumented students in the event ICE comes on campus/in our classrooms, peer support and training on protecting our peers.
        • Both faculty and students need training on the protocol of what to do if ICE comes on campus or in our classrooms and how to protect DACA/undocumented students.

  • Equity & Accessibility

    The work I've done and my goals in increasing equity and financial accessibility of living at Cornell: We need the abolishment of the Student Contribution Fee, increased restorative justice in our judicial processes that systemically fail to support underrepresented students, housing justice and reform at Cornell, and a centralization of resources to support our first-gen. low income community.

    Abolish the Student Contribution Fee:

    •  I assisted the People's Organizing Collective in their incredible campaign to abolish the Student Contribution and helped co-sponsor and pass a resolution creating a pilot program to abolish the student contribution for low-income students.
    • Collaborating with the ALANA organizations and Financial Aid Review Committee to create a mutual aid/access fund to provide grants or loans for off campus housing down payments
      • Off campus housing is expensive and down payments can be exorbitantly high, sometimes consisting of a down payment as well as one or two months of rent in advance. It's especially hard for more low income students to come up with that money on such quick turnaround.  
      • I have worked with fellow SA members in opening up a dialogue around providing this type of financial support. We have been having discussions with the Financial Aid Office and the Financial Aid Review Committee about this project.
        • We are also thinking of expanding this fund to cover miscellaneous student needs.
     

    ​Judicial Reform - Increased Restorative Justice:

    • I currently serve on the Codes and Judicial Committee of the University Assembly and have been assisting in rewriting the Campus Code of Conduct
      • We are currently in the process of creating a Student Code of Conduct
      • Coming from a student advocacy point of view, I have pushed for less punitive measures, an expansion of restorative justice at Cornell, and advised on policies regarding hate speech and campus crises
    • I am also a student mediator with the Scheinman Institute of Conflict Resolution
      • I provide a peer advocacy stance on student mediations
      • Have assisted students in cases when they receive JAs and mediated cases between them and the OJA
        • From this I've learned that the system is unfairly punitive and unnecessarily litigious. This NEEDS to change.
    • If elected I promise to:
      • Expand the restorative justice programs at Cornell
      • Provide more support and resources for students who find themselves interacting with the Office of the Judicial Administrator and push for increased transparency on the processes of the OJA
      • Create spaces for student voice and representation within the Office of the Judicial Administrator and support the student mediation programs
      • Demand the OJA explore less punitive options for low-level offenses and allow for more leniency in violation reporting and sanctions
     

    Housing justice and reform:

    • I will bring student concerns about the affordability of both on-campus and off-campus housing to the Student Assembly and administration
    • Both off-campus and on-campus housing is expensive
      • For on-campus housing, we need to have discussions concerning the pricing policy
        • If elected as President, I will push for administration to reconsider their pricing policy for on-campus housing where currently, the only things taken into account are room sizes. This system fails to take into account the extreme differences in amenities provided, meaning some students pay the same amount their peers do, but receive less programming, less amenities, and less ideal living conditions. 
      • For off-campus housing, I have begun discussions with Student and Campus Life and started researching the state of off-campus housing prices, which are widely agreed upon to be artificially and unfairly high. 
        • I hope to continue research on how the North Campus Expansion Project anticipates influencing the market for off-campus housing and look for immediate solutions to solve the high costs of off-campus housing. From my meetings and research with administrators and facilitators from both Cornell and from the city of Ithaca itself, it seems like greater student engagement with Ithaca should be encouraged, because then students have a say in housing policy and development in Collegetown and Ithaca.

    • Past work on housing justice:

      • Creation of the Housing Policy Review Committee

        • This past spring I co-sponsored a resolution to create a Housing Policy Review Committee to centralize the fight for better housing at Cornell and create an avenue for the student voice to reach administration about issues with housing

      • Transfer Housing

        • My first year, I was elected in as Transfer Rep after running a campaign that focused on the fact that transfers aren't guaranteed housing when coming to Cornell. Since then, I have worked tirelessly to amplify the transfer student voice in the issues surrounding transfer housing.

        • I hosted a transfer student panel for the Student Assembly to bring transfer housing to the forefront of the SA.

        • I have met with administration in various areas of Cornell such as ResLife, and Student and Campus Life to discuss the problems with transfer housing and have pressured the administration to guarantee housing for transfer students in the coming years.

        • I wrote an op-ed for The Sun with my research and thoughts on the transfer retention rate and how that may be effected by lack of housing.

        • I believe in holding administration accountable concerning housing situations that detrimentally affect the student experience.

        • You can find my research on housing and my notes on my meetings with administration concerning transfer housing at the following links:

       

    Centralizing Resources for our FGLI community + Past DNI work:

    • I will work with the Office of the Student Advocate to create a centralized resource bank so that students can readily find and access options to help with food insecurity, academic support, mental health resources and housing instability.
      • Emphasizing socioeconomic diversity and Diversity and Inclusion Outreach
        • In the past, the SA and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee have fallen under critique for being misaligned and uniformed of minority student concerns and needs.
        • To hopefully begin to mitigate this issue, I began performing outreach and asking to personally meet with student leaders in multicultural and minority organizations to get a better understanding of the concerns facing these communities .
        • I also invited members from various multicultural student communities and organizations to apply for the DNI Committee to ensure that all students have a seat at the table and that minority voices will be heard.
       

    • Sustainability

      We need climate justice and increased sustainability at Cornell now.

      Push for a recommitment to Carbon Neutrality by 2035, push to 2030

      • Cornell administration has voiced that we will move towards carbon neutrality by 2035 but we need a recommitment to carbon neutrality, and a shift up in our timeline. Climate justice can't wait and it's important that during COVID-19, our sustainability goals do not take a backseat. 

      Construction and Renovation:

      • Bring attention to and encourage transparency on administration's end concerning the North Campus Expansion Project. I will work with administration and relevant office to advocate for the following:
        • We need renovation and construction, but we need renovation and construction that is climate smart, carbon neutral, and centered around clean energy. 
        • Ensure sure the North Campus Expansion Project continues to work for a green campus
        • Maintenance and renovation of on-campus housing: provide avenue for students to voice to administration which areas are in most urgent need of fixing up

      Sustainable Investments and Transparency of the Cornell Endowment:

      • We need ethical and sustainable investments now. I will advocate for transparency in regards to the Cornell endowment, and encourage divestment from private prisons, police forces, and corporations with relationships with ICE

    • STATEMENTS

      A selection of published statements on the work I've done with the Student Assembly to stand in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault in response to harmful new Title IX policies, stand with #NotAgainSU to condemn hate incidents at Syracuse University, and condemn ICE activity in Tompkins County and support our undocumented students.

      In collaboration with the Office of the Student Advocate, I wrote and co-authored this statement that condemns the harmful new Title IX policies as passed by Secretary DeVos and vows to use all arms of the Student Assembly protect survivors of sexual assault.  

      In collaboration with Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Benedict, we stood in support with students at Syracuse University to condemn racist and bias-related events on their campus.

      With help from other members of the SA and members of the Cornell community, I authored the SA statement concerning recent ICE activity in Tompkins County. The Student Assembly has a responsibility to respond to these types of incidents that affect the greater community, and demonstrate that the SA stands in solidarity with undocumented students and individuals.

    • Endorsements

    •  Contact Me:

      Contact Me: I can be reached via email at cgh66@cornell.edu, Facebook messenger, or Instagram at @huang.cat!

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