The Minority Rights Coalition elected its new Board members Wednesday. The executive board members will be Chair Parisa Sadeghi, Chief Financial Officer Sara Surface and Chief Publicity Officer Gloria Roh — all College third-years — along with Vice President of Organizations Emily McDuff, a third-year Engineering student, and Vice President of Administration Alex Adames, a second-year College student.
Sadeghi said it would be important for the newly-elected board to make changes to the organizational structure of the MRC — made up of eight student-led organizations — so that each constituent group of the Coalition is involved in all future actions.
“One of the top reasons I ran is I want to make a lot of internal changes,” Sadeghi said. “I think it is important for MRC to become a more cohesive unit,” Sadeghi said. “We really are just there as a coalition of people. MRC is given meaning by its constituent organizations and the people who stand behind it.”
McDuff said she has similar goals, discussing interest in aiding the working relationship between the eight organizations.
“I personally want to help foster friendship and trust among the leaders of ASU, BSA, MELC, QSU, UFUSED, FIFE, LSA and NASU, and the leaders of the MRC,” McDuff said. “To create unified action, I think it is important to begin with foundational relationships.”
McDuff said another change she hopes will come out of internal redirection is a greater effort in responding with direct action to important issues facing the community.
“There are too many issues to count at this university and really in our country, but I think the biggest issue the MRC as an organization is facing is acting upon these issues — through action, word and actual change,” McDuff said. “Last year for us was one of reorganization but now is the time to act and engage and fight for what we want U.Va. to look and feel like.”
To a similar end, Sadeghi said she hopes to develop a push towards greater community advocacy by the group.
“One of my biggest goals is to make MRC more active in terms of advocacy,” she said. “I would really like us to help our organizations when they’re working on more advocacy-oriented campaigns. I think that is something MRC really needs to get involved in. Another thing we want to focus on is something related to cultural sensitivity training, or just increasing awareness of culture at U.Va.”
McDuff agreed that the organization must be more action-oriented this year and said she hopes the group will find issues they feel strongly about and take direct and meaningful action towards enacting change.
“We are meeting this week for the first time as a new executive board, so I know we will come up with an agenda then, but Parisa Sadeghi and I feel very strongly about taking tangible action rather than simply talking loftily about issues,” McDuff said. “You only have four years in college to make change and you have to make every day, every moment count.”
Surface said one of the ways the organization is hoping to generate more community-driven action is by developing closer relationships with non-MRC affiliated groups and other University populations.
“I would like to work on developing parameters for co sponsorship,” Surface said. “I would also like to focus on alumni relations and look forward to seeing MRC more involved in advocacy on Grounds especially with organizations that are less visible.”
Sadeghi said all these ambitions come down to a deep interest in responding to community issues with any and all appropriate steps.
“What’s key is making sure we don’t resort to the ‘standard response,’” Sadeghi said.
—Mitch Wellman contributed to reporting.
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