Senate Report 4/18/07: Choose the subtitle that makes you feel safe
Student Senate had a meeting last night, and the wheels were clearly coming off. The meeting was gaveled to order by Jon Rosenberg, because Senate President and Executive Candidate Sara Hamilton had been summarily removed from Senate by Con Court hours before, for (get this) submitting meeting agendas only 24 hours before meetings, instead of 48 hours before. So, suffice it to say that things started off awkward, and they only got worse.
After wrangling and pettiness (nobody likes oversight in action) over special requests, and a brief and fruitless discussion about the Hamilton situation, it was time for Senator Nate Gulley’s ethics hearing. What happened next is difficult to describe accurately. A group of around 50 people arrived for the hearing, wearing “silenced” bands across their mouths, and holding signs with a number of messages for Senate. Among the messages represented were, that Senate lacked respect for students of marginalized communities, that Senate perpetuated white supremacist power structures, and that Senate is not a safe place from a number of “isms.” During the hearing, Gulley asked the crowd to defend him, and many present shared how they felt marginalized, and how institutional racism exists on Senate, but the only real defense of Gulley was based on the context of this institutional racism, rather than on his actions themselves. MCC Director Steve Morizumi summed up the defense by saying (and I’m paraphrasing) “If this racist institution finds Nate’s actions offensive, he should be praised.”
Long story short, Nate was cleared of all charges, Senate will be participating in some form of awareness and/or sensitivity training, and at the end of it all, Senators Karl Mourfi and Jacob Daniels resigned. I’m still processing what happened, but this discussion is not over. This situation won’t be resolved here, but I’m sure people want to share their thoughts from last night. One request for people on every side of this discussion: Let’s please keep our sense of humor.
