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| Senate Postpones Genocide Resolution | ||||||
| The controversial resolution to condemn the Armenian genocide has, once again, proven to be a difficult subject for the AS Senate to tackle. | ||||||
| Senators at Wednesday's AS Senate meeting discussed, at length, the issues behind the proposed resolution brought by an Armenian student, calling for the panel to denounce the Armenian genocide of the 20th century. After mass deliberation, senators came to the conclusion that they would postpone ruling on the resolution and would instead send it back to the Documents & Bylaws subcommittee to make the resolution official. | ||||||
| Concern was voiced by several senators on the chance that this resolution could open up a "can of worms" and whether the AS Senate should even deal with such sensitive cultural issues. Sen.-at-large Daniel Rukhman said he felt the Senate denouncing genocide is of "global concern" and agreed with the suggestion made to change the wording of the resolution so it would encompass every genocide that has taken place in recent times, not solely the event suffered by the Armenians. Sen.-at-large for Greek organizations, Erik Jolliff, noted a similarity between the AS Senate speaking for over 35,000 students and the UN speaking for all of its constituent countries. | ||||||
| Dr. Mike Hostetler, dean of students, did not take a stance on the issue, but did point out a "historical disagreement" between the Armenians and the Turks, and also said that other students on campus may feel the need to address the issue further. | ||||||
| In other news, Sigma Phi Epsilon, the fraternity responsible for a controversial flyer distributed last week, apologized through Sen. Jolliff, who noted that there would be mandatory "sensitivity training" for all the members of the fraternity. Jolliff also said that while the African Student Union has a right to draft a resolution denouncing the fraternity, "It is difficult to pass something that would potentially censor a campus group, violating First Amendment rights." Jolliff also reminded the panel that Sigma Phi Epsilon is a "very diverse fraternity." | ||||||
| The Senate also appointed Shannon Stotz as the new senator for the college of Health & Human Services. | ||||||
| Copyright Gerry Wachovsky, 2003, and Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. | ||||||
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