A senate resolution approved during the meeting of Marshall University’s student senate will bring Autism Ally Training and Safe Space Training to the annual Week of Welcome. 

Senate Resolution 76.07 was approved by the student senate Tuesday. The resolution was created by new Interim Sen. Alyssa Parks, a first-year political science major who was sworn in last week, and co-sponsored by Madison Parker, chairwoman of the student senate’s Campus Life and Service Committee and mentor to Parks while she was in the Senate Apprenticeship Program.

“It pretty much would implement Autism Ally and Safe Space Training into WOW, and what we would do is give it as an option for freshman so they could go and learn more about the autism community and the LGBTQ+ community and learn how we can best be an ally to them and be a friend and just overall be kind and be a more inclusive university,” Parker said.

Autism Ally Training and Safe Space Training will first be included in WOW in 2019, Parker said. 

“I just think this resolution is going to allow for Marshall to be more inclusive,” Parker said. “That’s something that student government has really been pushing forward in the past couple years, and even this university, we want diversity, we want inclusion.”

At-Large Sen. Lena Salameh was also sworn into the student senate during Tuesday’s meeting. Salameh was unanimously approved in the student senate’s Judiciary Committee, Parliamentarian Jo Tremmel, leader of the committee, said. Salameh is a former student government senator and was also secretary of diversity and inclusion in the cabinet of former Student Body President Matt Jarvis, Tremmel said. With the good things Salameh has done, it was not that hard to approve her, Tremmel said.

Jesten Richardson can be contacted at [email protected].