A coalition of students and several members of the Boston University Student Government presented a proposal, dubbed “A Chance for Change,” at the Senate meeting Monday that would overhaul the Senate by rewriting the SG Constitution. If approved, the proposal would dissolve the Senate and address procedural errors and unequal representation.
Approximately 150 students attended the meeting and opened up the debate of whether to restructure the Senate gradually or immediately. At the end of the meeting, senators publicly voted to table the proposal for two weeks, with 26 votes in support of the motion, eight votes against it and four abstentions.
“A Chance for Change” would have allocated $5,000 of SG funds to the Executive Board to continue current Senate initiatives and operations after Senate’s dissolution. The proposal was presented by members of BU Students Against Silence, BU Senate, the Executive Board and Cabinet, the Residence Hall Association, the College Government President’s Council, Judicial Commission and other undergraduate students. A task force, “open to all students by application,” would then be responsible to create the new SG Constitution, according to information in the presentation.
BU Assistant Dean of Students John Battaglino addressed the crowd at the beginning of the meeting. He encouraged students to solve the problems currently facing SG through dialogue, without intervention from the administration.
“Just consider [taking] a break, time out,” Battaglino said. “Relax for a minute. Take a break from name-calling, take a break from accusations, take a break from making excuses, take a break from individual agenda, take a break from trying to figure out what happened, or searching for answers that just aren’t there.”
After the proposal’s presentation, attendees were able to ask the coalition about details. Many of the questions revolved around whether the constitution task force would be a better representation of students than the current Senate system.
Alanna Raskin, RHA president, and one of those who presented the proposal, said the idea of a task force was attacked at the meeting.
“I do not think [the students who presented the proposal] accomplished what we had intended to accomplish,” Raskin, a senior in Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said after the meeting. “We had come together, come to an agreement, but when we had come out here tonight [and] people started attacking other people personally, instead [of] the system, and it became unproductive.”
SG President Andrew Cho said he doesn’t have a clear plan moving forward and the compromises presented today did not please everyone who attended.
“I’m just concerned for all the students who can’t focus on this and continue to be targeted by students who are disagreeing with [the senators],” Cho, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said after the meeting. “I thought it was going to be a compromise that worked, but it’s clear it was not.”
Several students and senators expressed differing views on the need to immediately approve the proposal. Negin Taleb, a junior in the College of Communication, said she wished Senate had been dissolved due to its lack of representation.
“We should’ve left it up to the student body to learn about how these senators have been doing their jobs and to vote on whether or not they want to dissolve them,” Taleb said. “I don’t think it should’ve even been up to the senators to dissolve themselves because as we’ve proved, [senators] have been illegitimate.”
Angela Nawang, a senior in CAS, said senators are just holding on to their power and are not thinking of impactful changes that can assist future BU students.
“You can have the decision made right now, and with the decision made right now, you can actually move forward to change at this moment instead of pushing back change,” Nawang said. “And if you keep on doing [pushing back change] then there’s not going to be anything done.”
Steve Sang, a freshman in COM and a COM senator, said he thought the meeting was chaotic and unproductive.
“The original proposal should have passed,” Sang said. “We could have taken a break and had a chance to cool our heads down. If senators want to prove that Senate is legitimate, unlike what other people are saying, I think we have the chance to say this if we pass this proposal.”
Courtney Bold, a senior in the Questrom School of Business and a Questrom senator, said the meeting was productive in the sense that it explored options to reform Senate.
“Even though this meeting may not have had an outcome that made people happy, or anybody happy, it was an important step in starting a dialogue between concerned constituents and their senators,” Bold said. “It’s about starting a conversation. It’s something that I as a senator want to continue. I want to continue the conversation with my constituents.”
Pity they didn’t cover the anti-Semitic remarks emitting from Students Against Silence’s corner…
Pity that advocating for Palestinian lives is equated to anti-Semitism. Pity that bringing awareness to racial injustices on campus makes white people feel threatened. Pity that minorities have to be satisfied with a space in the basement of the GSU to discuss our issues. Pity that the African Studies Center was shut down last year. Pity that there is no ethnic studies department at BU. Pity that we have to scream and shout to get our voices heard. Pity that we were told we weren’t voicing our concerns before, and now that we are, we’re being labelled as harassers and angry, emotional people. Pity that we are being told to be rational by people who can afford to be rational. Pity that we have to take our power, our power that should be in our hands.
Your post does seem a bit angry and emotional…