In a Nov. 6 email to the St. Olaf community, the Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Team released an Anti-Apartheid Resolution stating the student government’s stance with survivors of apartheid on the Hill and outlining how SGA will continue to support students from these backgrounds moving forward. This resolution was created following a semester of student protests for Palestine in Spring 2024.
“Words carry weight, but actions signal intentionality,” SGA Vice President Grace Barton ’25 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “We wanted to be very intentional about the actions that we took to prove that we were committed behind the words we were writing.”
The Anti-Apartheid Resolution has been in the works now for about two years, but did not come into fruition until the 2024-2025 academic year when Secretary of Global Impact Luanga Kasanga ’25 reintroduced the idea to the Senate.
According to the resolution, SGA is looking to implement several modes of actions against apartheid. From Nov. 19 through Nov. 26, the fall semester’s Donate-A-Meal donations will go towards World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit fighting food insecurity in the Gaza Strip. Oleville, SGA’s website, is in the process of being moved from Wix, an apartheid-adjacent company, to a new domain. SGA is also actively discouraging student organizations from using SGA-allocated funds at businesses that support apartheid, such as Domino’s Pizza and McDonald’s through an Org Pledge that provides alternatives to these businesses that would still meet student organizations’ needs.
“We realize the funding limitations that orgs have, and so we’re not asking them to spend at a high end retailer instead of something that’s quick and easier and cheaper,” Barton said. “We’re just trying to point them towards better alternatives.”
To create long-lasting impact, SGA hopes to work with St. Olaf Admissions to find ways to provide support for prospective students who are survivors of apartheid and genocide as they write their college application essays. While conversations are still underway, SGA hopes that this collaboration will level out the playing field for incoming students.
“Our inclusivity can’t just start once you get here,” SGA President Zari Irving ’25 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “It needs to start before you walk through the door, before you even put in your application.”
When asked what actionable steps are being taken to support current students on the Hill who are survivors of apartheid and genocide, Barton said that SGA’s hope with this resolution is “to change a bit of the dialogue [that] the institution doesn’t care that this is happening.”
In fact, on Oct. 31, before publishing the resolution, SGA sent it to the college for any comments or feedback, which according to Barton and Irving, received “nothing but good feedback.” When The Olaf Messenger reached out to St. Olaf Public Relations Director Kat Dodge for an interview with a member of the President’s Leadership Team in regards to the Anti-Apartheid Resolution, however, Dodge replied with an email stating that the college did not take part in providing feedback on the resolution.
When asked if SGA has received any response from the college since the resolution’s publication, both Barton and Irving said that they have received no response.
In an email response to The Olaf Messenger, Dodge said on behalf of the President’s Leadership Team that “St. Olaf appreciates the thoughtful approach SGA and the Student Senate took in creating and passing a resolution, as well as the actions outlined in the resolution, to support fellow classmates.”
The college’s inaction and lack of response follows a year of student protests demanding for an official statement from the institution in addition to divestment from pro-Israeli companies such as Oracle, a job and time card site for student workers.
“We call upon the institution to say something, to do something because that’s what students really want at this point in time,” Barton said.
