The LSU Student Senate passed a bill Wednesday allocating $2,000 for a virtual course designed to educate students on how to speak about critical social issues and create understanding between different opinions.
The bill, titled Student Government Bill 1 and supported by the SG Black Caucus, faced some opposition in the senate over its cost and the course’s potential attendance before it ultimately passed 48-5-3.
“As Student Senate we are supposed to work about what the student body would want and after hearing how many people would not attend, we should not hold this event,” said College of Engineering Sen. Skyler Dowling.
Dowling claimed there had been similar events in the past costing less than $90, and that after surveying multiple classes on the plan he received only 10 responses, all of which were against the proposal.
He also stated how one respondent said they would prefer to allocate the money to skate racks and filling potholes, a comment criticized by SGB 1 co-author College of Humanities and Social Sciences Sen. Chloe Berry.
“Comparing racial identities to a $500 skateboard shows how important these conversations are. I want you all to see 10% of funding going towards 100% of the body,” Berry said, referring to the roughly 10-15% of SG’s Initiative Fund the $2,000 would represent. “Race is a social construct, not a real thing.”
Berry noted that allowing the funds to go to this initiative would open the door for more diverse conversations, noting that 40% of students on campus identify as non-Caucasian.
Also passed at the meeting was Student Government Resolution 3, which urges the LSU Faculty Senate to adopt its resolution aimed at purchasing Grammarly Premium for students with funds from the student tech fee. The resolution passed unanimously.
Passing unanimously also was SGR 4, urging SG and LSU to recognize all types of adversity that Black people have dealt with and powered through “beyond slavery, into the present, and everything beyond during Black History Month.”
Additionally, SGR 2, urging LSU and the Law Center to reinstate Professor Ken Levy to his previous position as the Holt B. Harrison Distinguished Professor, passed unanimously as well.
The LSU Student Senate meets every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., in the Student Union Capital Chambers.