You read the article, you tracked the hashtag, you probably saw the video, you might have even attended the sit in. The recent sexual assault mishandling by KU is one of the hottest issues on campus. Many students are trying to make their voices heard, and Miranda Wagner (@_mirandalw) wants to help them.
You may already know Miranda, a senior from Shawnee majoring in Economics, from her involvement in Student Senate. She started out in the Student Rights committee her sophomore year, and then joined Ad Astra’s elections campaign that spring where she won her seat as a Junior/Senior CLAS Senator. Last year, she was involved in various boards and committees. Miranda knew she wanted to run with Morgan Said and the rest of the Grow KU team in the spring, but she hadn’t thought about which position. “It wasn’t until January that my friend Alex Montgomery actually asked me, ‘Why haven’t you thought about running for VP?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know!’”
After a messy elections process (remember Burritogate?), Miranda took her place as the Student Body Vice President. Although she enjoys her office and the many opportunities it presents her, she expresses some frustration with the enormous time commitment required. “It’s such a culture thing, how intense our elections are, and it’s not like that at other schools. It has its pros and cons: we get the best, most invested, most interested people in our senate because there’s such a high expectation, but I took a GPA hit last semester. That’s not really good for students, so I’m really interested in how we can make that kind of culture, that way of doing it go away, but you can’t really legislate that.”
Miranda spent the summer working on some of the platforms she and Morgan ran on. The project to improve lighting along Louisiana Street is in the planning stages, and with the help of Senate Chief of Staff Mitchell Cota, the position of Student Senate Social Equity Director is in the works.
A large portion of her time this summer, however, was spent with the Title IX Roundtable, and has continued on into the semester with the recent concerns over KU’s handling of sexual assault. “I got a bunch of students on [the Title IX Roundtable] before this stuff even happened over the last few weeks and obviously interest has only gone up. And that’s good, because I would say historically in that room it’s a ton of administration.” The Roundtable is devoted to issues regarding sexual assault, consent, and other Title IX implications. It’s now an official student organization, and Miranda encourages you to contact her or its president Emma Halling if you’d like to get involved.
“The day after the Huffington Post article came out, we wrote a resolution and passed it in the rights committee condemning the university’s actions. A resolution doesn’t sound like much, but it sends a very public message that this is what student senate stands for, this is what we’re going to hold you accountable for. Seeing as we are the people who have the relationships with the administration, I think that sent a very strong message,” Miranda said regarding what Student Senate is doing to represent the student body on this issue. “I think people should be aware that we’re doing everything we can to improve student life every day.” She also wrote a letter to the editor, published in the University Daily Kansan, about products meant to prevent rape.
Miranda and Student Senate President Morgan Said
Miranda is also one of the founders of the September Siblings, an “organic, faceless, leaderless organization that formed on that first night when we were really pissed off.” Their mission is to give students a safe place to voice concerns regarding sexual assault on campus and how administration is handling it. Many Student Senate members are involved with the group, and they hope to be the link between students and administration. “I think that the students … have a very strong voice, but it’s coming from the outside. And since I’m going to be in a position this year where I get to be on the inside, and I get to keep pushing and pushing, the more people I can get behind me, the better.” The September Siblings are trying to have regular meetings, the dates of which can be found on their Facebook page. Miranda invites anyone to attend, but doesn’t want this to be the only place to discuss the issue.
“A lot of groups are having their own conversations about this,” she said. “I think that it’s really important to go back to the people you call your friends, your involvement on campus, your community and starting there, because that’s where you have the most impact.” She also encourages continued use of social media. “We had that Twitter hashtag going on, and that was trending in Kansas City at one point,” she said about #aGreatPlaceToBeUnsafe. “Just doing a hashtag is not enough, obviously, but it gives you an open place to have that conversation and make it visible for everyone. No one can make you stop and no one can shut it down. I think it’s really important that we keep putting the pressure on KU in that way.”
Outside of Student Senate and her classes, Miranda fills her free time with her involvement in Alternative Breaks, watching Doctor Who, and eating ice cream at Sylas & Maddy’s. She’s also been working at Just Food, a food bank here in Lawrence, since January. After graduation this summer, she’d like to continue to work for nonprofits before getting her Master’s degree in either Public Administration or Economics.
Miranda and her Alternative Breaks group
“It can be really tempting, especially at the beginning of your college career, to just stay in and be withdrawn into yourself because it’s a big scary campus, but I think that the more you put yourself out there and try different student groups, try different events, try whatever … you’re really quickly going to find your place,” she advises Collegiettes™. “And don’t underestimate yourself! We’re pretty lucky at KU, there’s a lot of women in leadership, but it’s mind-blowing to me as a leader that someone had to ask me to run for vice president. I think about that a lot. I don’t want other people to wait around to be asked.”
If you’d like to contact Miranda or anyone else on the Student Senate Executive Board, their emails can be found at studentsenate.ku.edu.