Ball State's spring 2021 graduates might wear sustainable gowns

<p>The Student Government Association's Diversity and Multicultural Committee discusses the student forum scheduled for Jan. 29, 2020, regarding the Jan. 21 classroom incident at Ball State. Jordyn Blythe, the committee's chair is the moderator for the forum. <strong>Grace McCormick, DN</strong></p>

The Student Government Association's Diversity and Multicultural Committee discusses the student forum scheduled for Jan. 29, 2020, regarding the Jan. 21 classroom incident at Ball State. Jordyn Blythe, the committee's chair is the moderator for the forum. Grace McCormick, DN

Ball State’s graduating class of spring 2021 might wear different gowns during their graduation ceremony.

At Wednesday’s Student Government Association (SGA) meeting, Ball State Bookstore manager Ron Sorrell, commencement coordinator Angel Tuttle and senior director of business affairs Matt Stephenson informed senators of the goal to switch to sustainable gowns by 2021.

The new gowns are produced by the company GreenWeaver, which recycles plastic bottles, breaks them down into pellets and sows them into fabric to make their sustainable gowns, Stephenson said.

After being used, Stephenson said, the gowns can be recycled again using the recycling bins around campus. The sustainable material is estimated to cost around $3 more for undergraduate gowns than the current price, he said.

According to Ball State’s website, the current cost of a baccalaureate degree cap, gown and tassel put together is $49.98.

Also at the meeting, T Nakamura was approved to become a collegiate caucus senator representing the Teachers College. She was previously an on-campus senator and member of the SGA’s diversity and multicultural committee but wanted to represent a new constituency.

“I found myself being a little too comfortable as a on-campus senator, and I want to be able to do more,” Nakamura said.

Nakamura said she wants to be involved in making the Counseling Center more accessible for students and working with a sexual assault awareness campaign SGA Vice President Cameron DeBlasio introduced this semester.

Interested senators in the sexual assault awareness campaign signed up to participate in an ad hoc committee Jan. 15.

To close the meeting, DeBlasio encouraged senators to attend the SGA- and Black Student Association-sponsored forum from 6:30-8 p.m., which will be moderated by Diversity and Multicultural Committee chair Jordyn Blythe.

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“We want the forum to be a very open dialogue among anybody who wants to share what we should know and what other students should know,” DeBlasio said in an interview. “The idea is to keep an open, casual dialogue about everything.”

The plan to host a forum Wednesday, Jan. 29 was approved at the Jan. 27 SGA executive meeting.

RELATED: Ball State BSA, SGA host community forum following classroom incident

“We didn’t want to let too much time go by after the event, so we knew we needed to get the forum finalized,” DeBlasio said.

Though SGA and BSA are sponsoring the forum together, DeBlasio said Blythe’s moderation will serve to focus the discussion and open-floor comments will fill the time.

Contact Grace McCormick with comments at grmccormick@bsu.edu or on Twitter @graceMc564.

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