The Student Senate passed 15 resolutions as it wrapped up its 61st session Wednesday.
The resolutions condemned an engineering professor for his course’s testing conditions, denounced members of the Louisiana Legislature who wrote in support of the Foret-Tatman: Forward campaign’s reinstatement, called for clarification on the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion guidelines and more.
In addition to the resolutions passed, Chief Justice Camille Cronin told the Senate election results won’t be announced until the dean of students rules on the remaining election case.
Speaker Lailah Williams presented Student Government Resolution 26, which urged the administration to give clarification surrounding new DEI standards. The resolution passed unanimously after Williams spoke on how the laws have affected the Senate’s plan to send a student to an educational conference.
“Because one of these sponsors of the conference has a commitment to DEI in their mission statement, she was no longer allowed to go,” Williams said.
READ MORE: LSU Student Senate urges dean of students to overturn reinstatement of Foret-Tatman: Forward campaign
Since the mission statement was on the website, the Senate was no longer allowed to give the money it promised. This incident took place prior to the federal directives addressing DEI, but the resulting confusion still contributed to the Senate’s decision to seek clarification.
Sens. Corbitt Driskell, Joshua Jones and Hannah Alm-Gibson presented SGR 25. The resolution, which passed unanimously, condemned State Sens. Alan Seabaugh and Gregory Miller and State Rep. Dixon McMakin for their involvement in this year’s SG election, in which they wrote in support of the Foret-Tatman: Forward campaign’s reinstatement prior to the election.
Driskell was quick to put any potential hesitations about the resolution to rest.
“It doesn’t change the fact that what they did was wrong, and if we feel it was wrong, we should be able to say that,” Driskell said.
The student senators didn’t explicitly name Foret-Tatman: Forward but referred to them as “a certain ticket” while debating the resolution’s passage.
“They are going to vote against education anyway,” said Sen. Alicia Cerquone of Seabaugh, Miller and McMakin. “So we have two choices: We can let all the hard work and countless hours we put into this organization be returned with a slap in the face and we can shut up and fall in line, or we can say something about it and call out the actions of these senators.”
Sens. Ryan Benn and James Williams III presented SGR 19, a resolution condemning engineering Professor Harris Wong for allegedly creating a hostile testing environment. It passed 53-4 with no abstentions.
Wong teaches thermodynamics, a course required to graduate as an engineering major. He’s the only professor who teaches the class.
The resolution says Wong’s syllabus states students are able to have a calculator and a notecard with them during testing. Before an exam, however, he allegedly told students they wouldn’t be able to use the extra material.
“He is disregarding not only the feelings of students but the academic environment by creating a syllabus saying, ‘Hey, you will have these materials and then explicitly taking that away,’” Benn said.
Student Senate meetings will resume in the fall on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Union Capital Chamber.
