The Student Senate adopted Resolution 36 by a 48-to-one vote at their Special Meeting Wednesday regarding the hate crime bill.
The bill calls for the individuals who wrote the racist remarks on the Free Expression Tunnel after Election Day to aware of and learn from their actions no matter how the University handles the situation, according to Kelli Rogers, Student Senate pro-tempore and junior in political science.
The bill went to Rogers’ committee, the Senate Select Committee on Hate Crimes, after the Senate rejected fast-tracking it at the last Senate meeting.
“Students will also be affected because I will not let this be put to rest until all of our policies have been seriously criticized and reevaluated — especially the harassment policy,” Rogers said. “It’s so vague now that it is not that it does not cover these sorts of things, but that students do not understand what it covers and what the outcome of the actions and consequences are.”
The bill the Senate passed was not the original bill filed, but was instead the bill from the committee meeting.
“The bill was sent to the committee and it was changed completely,” Sen. Maritza Adonis, the orginal bill’s sponsor and junior in political science, said. “What we saw tonight was not my bill.”
Although Adonis originally sponsored the bill, she said she voted against it to represent the 600 signatures and those present who supported the original bill.
The students who signed the petition were not provided with both the original and alternate forms of the bill said both Rogers and Adonis.
After a motion to strike the alternate resolve clause and replace it with the original, Rogers said that the intent of the alternate was to strengthen the original bill.
Senators Rogers and Adonis both reminded the senators to vote not for personal beliefs but for the students and groups they represented.
Although the Student Senate fairs alright, Adonis said she did not think that they collectively represent the student population.
One student said in the meeting that she appreciated the time the Student Senate gave to modifying the bill but that the time was not what they were looking for. She said students were looking for stronger action but that the Senate was not to blame.
Sen. Jason Lindsay, a senior in political science, said in the meeting that the issue at the Senate meeting was not a legal debate.
“There is no legal basis for the expulsion of the students,” Lindsay said. “It is not a legal case. If the University oversteps its boundaries by expelling students, then the University would face a lawsuit.”
Adonis said she believes this experience has proved how much she needs to continue to stay involved in the Senate.
“I can go to bed peacefully for the first time in an awfully long time,” Adonis said. “At the time of the incident, I was not affected personally. However, students came up to me asking as a senator what I was going to do about it.”
Chris Coleman, assistant men’s track and field coach and recruiter for N.C. State, said that the results of the meeting affected more than just the University.
“The entire nation is waiting to see what will happen here tonight,” Coleman said.
He said as a recruiter, the status of the University’s harassment policy would directly affect him.
“The first question I get is ‘Is the University safe?'” Coleman said. “I want my students to be able to answer ‘yes’ and know that if a situation like this happens, then something would be done.”
