The ASUO Senate passed a resolution on Wednesday night opposing the controversial Pacifica Forum.
The vote was the culmination of a month’s worth of emotional meetings. At each of the meetings in which a resolution concerning the Forum was discussed, save for last night’s, student activists delivered emotional, and at times accusatory, testimony.
The Pacifica Forum is a discussion group that meets weekly on campus and has drawn critical attention for its speakers, some of whom have questioned the extent of the Holocaust and been called white supremacists and Neo-Nazis. Student activists have said having the group on campus creates an atmosphere that endangers minority students.
Most of the activists were absent from Wednesday’s meeting, but after little discussion, the Senate still passed the resolution by a margin of 16 votes for, one against and one abstaining.
Whereas at each of the past three meetings enough people testified against the Forum that time ran out before everyone present could speak, only three showed up to speak on Wednesday.
The Senate, it seemed, was resolved to defeat the Forum. Even community member Dan Weiner, who had spoken at previous meetings in support of finding an alternative space for the Forum to use, testified that the Forum should be removed. Weiner alleged that Forum founder Orval Etter had made anti-Semitic statements and questioned the Holocaust in the past.
“I want to pass it and get home for midterms,” Sen. Demic Tipitino, one of two senators who sponsored the resolution, said.
Despite its easy passage, senators agreed the resolution would not completely satisfy all involved.
On Jan. 27, the Senate voted down an earlier resolution asking the Forum to leave campus after some senators said it would endanger the group’s First Amendment rights. It quickly became apparent that the Senate would need to pass some sort of resolution about the group after Senate Vice President Nick Schultz said he would submit a resolution opposing the Pacifica Forum before every Senate meeting for the rest of the year until one passed.
Wednesday’s resolution, instead of asking the Forum to leave, commends the University for removing the group from the EMU and supports the activists who have demonstrated against the group.
“I’m still going to vote for it, but I don’t think the resolution is strong enough,” Schultz, the other senator who sponsored the resolution, said.
Senators who supported the original resolution circulated a copy of it, asking those in the audience to sign it so that it could be presented to the Forum.
Sen. Zachary Stark-MacMillan said the University Senate will debate a resolution regarding the Forum at its monthly meeting in March.
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