IU Student Assocation Congress passed one resolution, elected a new parliamentarian and tabled another resolution during its meeting Tuesday.
A majority of the meeting was spent discussing the tabled bill. The resolution was meant to condemn anti- Semitism on campus.
The bill’s main sponsor, Jason Shader Smith, representing off-campus residency, said he drafted the bill because of incidents on campus with anti-Semitism and hoped the bill will protect students against such incidents in the future.
“My job as a congressman is to represent the students of this campus, and if students on our campus are being hated against or persecuted or feel unsafe on our campus, then what I want to do is make it right,” Shader Smith said.
Some of those opposed to the bill raised concerns during the meeting about how the resolution deals with political criticism of Israel, as some parts of the bill specifically mention the country.
Congresswoman Hannah Miller, representing off-campus residency, said she was not in support of the bill as it was presented Tuesday, though she said she feels anti-Semitism is an issue across college campuses that should be addressed.
“I have a problem with the resolution not because of the anti-Semitic issues,” Miller said ” ... I don’t feel comfortable with the statements about Israel not including Palestine whatsoever when we need to recognize that those are both legitimate groups. It is a very political issue, and I don’t feel that it’s IUSA’s jurisdiction to make a decision about Israeli-Palestinian issues as a body.”
The first resolution of the meeting, which passed unanimously, filled vacant Congressional openings in the College of Arts and Sciences, Jacobs School of Music, Foster Quad, Forest Quad, the Media School, Eigenmann Hall, University Division students and off-campus residents.
Congress also voted to elect a new parliamentarian after the previous parliamentarian, Scott Zellner, had to step down due to time conflicts.
The body elected Maria Halloran, head of the oversight and reform committee and congresswoman for the College Arts of Sciences, as the new parliamentarian.
She said she wants to make meetings more orderly and create conditions that allow congressmen to have a positive experience with IUSA.
“I would really like to see the meetings and people’s time being used as effectively as possible,” Halloran said. “I also want to increase the congressional members’ access to the steering committee, and I think I’d be very passionate about talking to people, helping with legislation, making sure that IUSA is really operating in the best interests of students.”
During the meeting, Maggie Oates, speaker of congress and congresswoman for the School of Informatics and Computing, said IUSA Congress is adopting a new plan whereby the main sponsor or sponsors of a congressional bill will meet with Stephen Browne, adviser to the vice president of Congress, in the days following a resolution’s passage to create a plan of implementation.
Oates said the goal of the new procedure is not to create more work for Congress members, but rather to make sure the legislation Congress approves is actually carried out.
“Previously, after a bill was passed in IUSA, it would go to the executive branch, get signed by the president and then fall into a void,” Oates said. “That’s basically what we’re trying to avoid this year by using implementation plans.”
