Next Year’s Outlook with CCE: An Interview with the New Liaisons

One of the most influential organizations at IMSA is  Council for Campus Equity (CCE). It is responsible for representing the voice of minority students through various projects and implemented policies to better student life and advocate for equity. Members of CCE conduct research, host events, and lead programming activities to target issues regarding DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). They also work to support culture clubs in a more behind-the-scenes fashion, including funding them and other clubs with a DEI focus to “ensure they can represent the different communities and identities on our campus,” as Maitreyi Pandey, one of the new liaisons, explains. To take a deeper dive into this organization, The Acronym decided to interview the newly elected CCE Liaisons for the 2023–24 school year—Pandey and Aldo Magana—to see what they’re up to.

A few past events CCE has hosted include organizing the MLK assembly and putting on the Happy Holidays event as part of the 12 Days of CAB. As Magana states, the Happy Holidays event “really gave students of different cultural backgrounds the opportunity to share their cultures and feel represented, even if it was just through food.” Additionally, CCE has also collaborated with multiple different student organizations, including BSU, GEA, SPARK, and L&D to initiate activities like courageous conversations and other passive events. In fact, CCE has also worked with the Hall Diversity Coordinators (HDCs) to discuss what hall programming would look like and how to make it more meaningful. A more recent event they hosted was Disability Celebration Week, in which they collaborated with L&D to host a series of events like an ASL workshop and a slime-making activity.

Future plans for CCE include initiating the Chasing Equity Conference event, which, as Pandey states, is a conference where “local schools and organizations come to IMSA to learn about the DEI work we do here and learn how to create resources of their own to represent their own communities.” Overall, in the upcoming year, CCE is looking to continue its duties and bring energy to this organization so that it can make a contribution to the IMSA community in the best way possible, as Magana explains in the interview.

Although we have all seen the amazing results and contributions that CCE has had on various IMSA events, there is an incredible amount of hard work and dedication in all the behind-the-scenes moments. As a CCE Liaison, responsibilities include leading the organization as a whole, which means ensuring that CCE has everything they need to provide the IMSA community with the appropriate resources for a successful school year, as Magana describes. Moreover, being a CCE Liaison would involve conversations with administrators, helping board members with their projects, and even contributing to their own projects as any CCE board member. In the words of Pandey, as a Co-Liaison, a big part of their responsibilities is to “manage all the different roles and projects [their] board works on, communicate with administrators about different issues as they arise, and work with culture clubs on anything they need help with.” With all of this in mind, students can look forward to the upcoming school year with the new Co-Liaisons of CCE and everything they have in store for IMSA.