July, 2024
No meeting, just news!
Alabama REACH needs your help!
Alabama REACH assists students in becoming successful college graduates by providing academic, financial, emotional, and social support in an inclusive and supportive community.
They collaborate with The University of Alabama’s Student Care and Well-Being office to provide food assistance through a Food Pantry. Additionally, Student Care and Well-Being provides meal allotments up to twice a semester for students in times of need through it’s “Got Meals?” program.
Please consider supporting them by purchasing items on the REACH Amazon Wish List, which includes items most often picked up by other students when visiting family during the holiday season. Once you place an item in the cart and are ready to check out, select “Alabama REACH’s Gift Registry Address” from the “Other Addresses.” As an Amazon privacy measure, the address will not be displayed, but items will be delivered to the Alabama REACH office in Russell Hall (504 University Boulevard, 342 Russell Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401).
OCTSA Updates
Spread the news!
Please consider sharing this newsletter with your peers! If you know anyone who would be interested in joining, send them our way!!!
Looking for more involvement? There are four internal OCTSA committees that you can join to help support the efforts of OCTSA as a whole.
The OCTSA also sends non-voting representatives to UA Standing Committees who bring valuable information back to our monthly assembly meetings.
Feel free to read about the internal OCTSA committees here.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Last month we honored Juneteenth!
Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth marks an effective end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. — History.com
There is an official Juneteenth Flag. The banner has a bursting white star in the middle and is a symbolic representation of the end of slavery in the United States. The flag is the creation of activist Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF). He designed the flag in 1997 with the help of collaborators and Boston-based illustrator Lisa Jeanne Graf. The flag has been revised twice since its creation. — CNN
Federal/State/Local
On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation into law establishing June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day, a U.S. federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
Since June 2021, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has authorized Juneteenth as a holiday for Alabama state employees and it remains so upon designation by the governor.
The University of Alabama recognized the first official Juneteenth holiday in 2021 and has since added it to the University’s list of annual holidays.
To do:
BENEFIT OF THE MONTH
We hope to see you at the next assembly meeting!
What information would you like discussed at future OCTSA meetings? Let us know! If you have any news, events, and/or information that would be helpful to share in the next newsletter, please contact us.