The Student Senate met Wednesday to discuss legislation and the U.S. Department of Education’s end to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and how the changes would affect SG moving forwards.
SG is a registered student organization and a department that collects student fees, but with the new laws surrounding DEI, student fees can no longer be budgeted towards anything relating to DEI. There were questions among the senate about certain departments such as Student Life, Diversity and Community Outreach, and other identity-based committees and caucuses.
“As of right now all of those bodies and institutions are able to keep going, they were submitted to review of the university; as of now they said yes,” said Senate Speaker Lailah Williams.
Williams is working on receiving a list of senate-specific rules to make proposing legislation, resolutions and orders go more smoothly in the future in light of the new rules.
“My current intent is to get full language intent now, when it comes to student government I would like to have it specified to us,” she said.
This will change how legislation is formed going forward, with the new federal laws in mind. Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Ethan Elmer brought up complications the University of Texas SG has faced, where members had questions on certain legislations allowed, and whether they were able to speak out against the DEI laws.
Texas moved to abolish DEI programs in 2023, implementing the change on Jan. 1, 2024.
“It is heavily advised to not put out any resolutions of the sort just so we don’t poke the bear,” Elmer said. “At UT, they sort of jumped the gun and had their code line-combed.”
In other news, the senate unanimously appointed two new members to the Latin Caucus and Chief Justice Camille Cronan gave an update confirming the Forward campaign received 1 violation of 6 SGC §817(2), an anti-bribery statute that immediately disqualifies those found in violation.
It was also moved by unanimous consent to appropriate $124.98 for banners being made for custodian appreciation week.
The Student Senate will have its next meeting Wednesday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Union Capital Chambers.
