RUSGA Presidential Candidate Profile: Awah Tilong

By: Thomas Jones

Though Awah Tilong’s hobbies may lie in the realms of hair, fashion, makeup and movies her job, as she’d see it, is implementing the change that Regis needs. When met with the daunting question of “Why did you decide to run for Student Body President?” Tilong didn’t need any time to collect herself or formulate an answer, she immediately responded, “Regis lacks the fundamental basics of what college is supposed to look like. College is known as formative, fundamental years where you gain the structure necessary for adulthood. Regis lacks the opportunity for a real college experience. Everything is so serious all the time, we need to address important issues and also enjoy one another at the same time.”

With this being Tilong’s platform for her campaign and her overarching goal if elected as RUSGA President, she continued on to speak on specific actions she would also take as President of RUSGA. One of the main aspects of Regis which Tilong seeks to change is the quality and kind of events which we are having on campus. Tilong states, “We have so many events on how we’re different! Like damn, how many events on how we’re different do you need? I know that we’re different!” In reference to how Tilong would shift these events she responded, “I want more events that are fun and that students will actually want to come to and want to attend that still strike at these important issues in a more effective, inclusive and just overall more enjoyable way.”

Tilong sees one of the main ways of doing this being to, “Have more events where they [Regis] invite the outside community, other colleges do a lot of that and Regis doesn’t. I want to incorporate the broader community in more of our events which therefore encourages Regis to make better quality and larger events.” While Tilong certainly has many good ideas for Regis, she also has the credentials to back up her touted experience in effecting the kind of change she wishes to.

While interviewing Tilong in Walker’s Pub I quickly realized that her run for RUSGA President has been a long time in the making, spanning as far back as her first semester of freshman year here at Regis when she was thinking of leaving, but instead decided to stay to change those things which she disagreed with. This is something Tilong has consistently done while here at Regis, refusing to accept how things are and instead changing them for the better.

This attitude is reflected in her work as an RA, as she states, “I love being an RA, I feel that at Regis there is a lot of stigma’s around RA’s and as one I can work to reduce that stigma and change those ideas about RA’s,” as well as her reaction to policies she finds unfair such as the former rule within the University that stated that one can’t be involved in both Resident Life and RUSGA. This was a rule which Tilong was instrumental in helping get overturned due to the leadership qualities she sees cultivated as an RA that are also easily cross-applied to working in RUSGA.

Tilong’s accomplishments don’t stop at the Resident Life and RUSGA offices though, as she is also involved in several other clubs and offices here on campus. One of Tilong’s largest leadership positions here on campus is that of BSA President. One of the accomplishments she’s most proud of as the leader of BSA for the past two years is, “Getting students together that are different and diverse, the majority of BSA is actually not black and I’m really proud of that.” Some of the more specific events and actions Tilong has taken as President of BSA include, but are not limited to: getting a space in Clarke Hall that BSA can call their own and use to meet in every week, helping create and host on campus events such as the Colin Kaepernick conversation, the BLM rally, the Black Out at the Regis basketball game as well as the conversations with faculty and students that followed the basketball game which all took place this past year.

When asked where Tilong gets her talents for being able to bring people together and host events she references her past work in both the Diversity and Violence Prevention offices which she states, “[These offices] showed me what needs to change. They showed me what resources are helpful in creating change and not just good looking. It also helped me to gain the confidence necessary to make change and to stand up for what I believe in.”

Social Justice, Race, and Regis

(Photo: Frances Meng-Frecker)

               “We should be ahead, but instead we’re behind,” said Jack Flotte, outgoing director of RUSGA’s Social Justice and Spirituality Committee. When Flotte made this remark, he was discussing the fact that, as a Jesuit University, Regis should logically be ahead of the curve when it comes to justice, and incorporating all races, but, for some reason, we aren’t.

               Over the past month, Regis has undergone conversations of race, community, and issues that people of color face on our campus. Many people have left feeling as if there was no resolution, but Flotte sees hope in the fact that over 150 people showed up to the first talk, and people continued to attend subsequent ones.

               Why do we need these conversations? Why do we have an office specifically for Diversity and Inclusion? Because our community is a fractured one that needs to be fixed, luckily we have the people to do that. Student Government and the Diversity Office give students a chance to have their voices heard, but it can still be hard to grasp what it means to be a person of color on Regis’ campus.

               “It means that you are going to be uncomfortable a lot of the time,” said Awah Tilong, who works in the Diversity Office. “You either succumb to that and let that affect your experience or you use it to help create an environment that is more comfortable.” The latter is the reason that events like Anti-Oppression Week and Social Justice Week exist.

               Anti-Oppression Week was meant to educate, inform, and was heavily organized by faculty members Brian Drwecki and Damien Thompson. It was during this week that Flotte infamously made remarks about dismantling the “myth” of black-on-black crime. He delivered these remarks during a presentation about White Guilt.

               “The point of this talk was to normalize this conversation about race,” said Flotte. He believes that people are afraid to talk about race, and that we stigmatize these discussions in our society.

               Many national news sources attacked Flotte, saying his statement was false, but no one gave him the chance to clarify. For Flotte, the remark emerged not because black people never commit crimes against other black people, but because people utilize this narrative to undermine the black community, and movements such as Black Lives Matter.

               “We think it’s a social phenomenon and we believe it's inherently different from when white people commit crimes,” said Flotte. His aim was to demonstrate that this is inherently untrue, but that’s not how many perceived it.

               Flotte is not alone in his beliefs about how harmful the message of black-on-black crime is. In fact, others suggest it is another way for non-minorities to continue to believe that they have no role in the oppression of others.

               “It’s just a way to dilute the fact that black people have experienced more violence, more oppression, and have had a more negative experience in America,” said Tilong. “No matter what you say, they will say ‘but you guys are doing it to yourselves.’ Even though there’s a system; it’s still our fault.”

               Being able to ignore issues of race is another form of privilege. Reinforcing the black-on-black crime narrative is another way that people are forced to pick privilege over reform.

               “It’s a rhetoric tool that is used to divide people,” said Flotte. “It tells us the problems in black communities are not your problems—that you don’t have a role in the problems or the solutions.”

               Inter-group violence exists because of our segregated communities, and the fact that we live in a world where limited resources are controlled by institutions rather than communities. However, when people try to bring issues of justice, especially those of race, to light, they are often met with violent backlash.

               “The minute people feel like they are being targeted they feel defensive or scared,” said Tilong. She remarks that it 's hard to create ally-ship because people tend to take any discussion of race as a personal insult, even though it is simply about creating spaces for stories other than the dominant ones to be heard.

               Flotte, who comes from a family of military and police, says that he thinks people often interpret power for others as an attack on them. This is why he believes we have such difficulty creating reform in our world. Rather than being an attack on others, reform is about gaining agency for those who have had it stripped from them in the past, but it can be hard for people to grasp that. This tension is where we find push-back on justice reform in our society.

               “Regis as an institution isn’t going to change, not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t have to,” said Tilong.  “There isn’t enough of us others to put influence on this school…to make this change happen quick and smooth. Students with this privilege and power need to put their privilege aside and stop taking things so personally. Don’t combat change. Us making this community comfortable for us will make it comfortable for you too. We aren’t trying to have a revolution we seek to make a community where we can all feel fine and comfortable.”

               Regis is a small place to start the reform that Flotte, Tilong, and many others believe our society needs. However, it has become clear that, even on our small campus, there are barriers to accessing this justice. In the future, there is hope that those restrictions can be lifted, and we can achieve change at our school.

Catie Cheshire Staff Reporter