Student senators narrowly rejected a resolution Wednesday to pressure the U.S. into furthering diplomatic pressure against Iran’s nuclear program because many opponents said it violates the ASUO Constitution and it would upset many students.
The issue brought people “out of the woodwork,” many senators said; some students were forced to stand or to sit on the floor.
After several failed attempts during the hour-long debate to end discussion on the controversial issue, senators voted against it, killing the resolution because they said it wasn’t in the “direct interest of the overwhelming majority” of the student body and because it would violate the ASUO Constitution.
Six representatives from various student groups, including the Jewish Student Union and the College Democrats, attended the meeting to present the resolution.
Jonathan Rosenberg, director of the JSU, one of the resolution’s co-authors and a recently elected member of next year’s Senate, said senators should not ask how the issue affects them.
“It should be, How can we affect this issue?’” he said.
Another sponsor, Daniel Rosove, said that senators were setting a precedent that indicates “we don’t care and we don’t have a word to say” about other controversial issues such as Dafur and gay rights.
One of the Senate sponsors of the resolution, ASUO President-elect Jared Axelrod, said these issues promote discussion on campus and that it’s in the purview of the Senate because it affects students. He said nobody cares about the Senate allocating money for food at events, and that these issues should be debated.
But Senator Dallas Brown said that just because “killing people would spark interest” doesn’t mean the Senate should kill people to incite interest in student government. He encouraged the resolution’s authors and supporters to collect petition signatures as a way to lobby national leaders.
Brown asked unsuccessfully for a link between Iran and the University campus. He said the Senate “could debate anything under the sun on what’s morally wrong,” but he said issues need to be germane to students.
Senator Kyle McKenzie elicited an audible gasp from attendees when he said he supports “going into Iran and killing them all.” He then apologized, clarifying that he meant “I don’t like the bad people,” he said. He agreed with other senators’ opposition to the resolution because it’s not a pertinent issue to campus, he said.
This was the second time the resolution came to the Senate, but last term it could not be passed because Senate rules limited resolutions to issues dealing with the incidental fee. Senate added a section to the rules that distinguishes between incidental fee resolutions and issue resolutions, allowing senators to make issue resolutions if a two-thirds majority of members agree that it affects the overwhelming majority of students.
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