Social work doctoral student Ruben Lane Forsman is no stranger to service. Forsman served as an intensive outpatient substance abuse counselor in New Orleans, Louisiana and as a member of the Florida Assertive Community Treatment Team in Leon County providing community-based mental and behavioral health services to individuals experiencing severe, persistent mental illness prior to entering the Doctoral Program at the FSU College of Social Work. Forsman has taken seriously his role as an active member of FSU’s academic community, serving as both an executive board member of the College’s Doctoral Student Organization and as a College of Social Work representative for the Florida State University (FSU) Congress of Graduate Students.

Recently nominated by Speaker of the 25^th Congress of Graduate Students Joshua Scriven, Forsman was selected to serve on a 15-member panel of the President’s Advisory Panel on University Namings and Recognitions. Consisting of FSU students, staff and alumni, the panel was created to review current university policies concerning campus names and markers, including statues. The panel will be chaired by FSU’s Chief Diversity Officer Renisha Gibbs.

“I want to thank the members of this panel for their willingness to take on this important matter,” Thrasher said. “I expect them to be deliberate, to be thoughtful and to seek input from the entire Florida State community as they do their work.”

The panel was announced due to concerns raised by student government in 2016, including a referendum on the Fall 2016 Student Government ballot to remove naming recognition on campus referring to Francis Eppes. The controversy resurfaced in 2017 as debates surrounding inclusion and representation on campuses have been raised across the country.

“This panel’s mission relates directly to my roles as a social worker and student at FSU,” Forsman said. “Social justice and dignity and worth of the person are tenets of the code of ethics for social workers and the work of this panel directly align with those core values. As an FSU student, I am invested in making sure the campus environment at FSU is welcome and open to all.”

The panel aligns with the Florida State’s guiding values and morals laid out in The Seminole Creed which asks members of the FSU community to follow the principles of truthfulness, respect, excellence, freedom of speech and inquiry, diversity, justice, citizenship, and discovery. 2017 also marks the fourth consecutive year that FSU has received the Higher Education Excellence and Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

The panel's meetings will be open to the public and include opportunities for public comment. A website is set to be launched in the coming weeks to provide updates on the panel’s progress.