Proposal fails for IUSA minority representation

A proposal to better represent international, domestic minority and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students failed to pass at an IU Student Association Congress meeting last week.

The measure, which would have incorporated three delegate seats to members of the underrepresented campus groups, fell two votes short of passing.

The amendment was proposed in an effort to directly and more successfully represent IU’s diverse community, said the amendment’s proponents.

Many disagreements arose during the meeting.

In the initial proposal, the minority leaders would have been chosen by the Commission on Multicultural Understanding, but members of Congress argued that the IU student body needed to vote on these three delegates.

Many supporters and creators of the amendment believed this rationale was insufficient.

Junior Alexandra Chtchedrina, international student and co-writer of the VOICE Report, said many Congress members are appointed, not elected, to represent the students.

She said because of this, the amendment was not that different from what IUSA is currently doing.

According to the second article of the IUSA constitution, members of congress are elected annually to serve a one-year term. The members must also be members of IUSA and live in the district they will represent. IUSA Vice President for Congress Andrew Hahn said because some seats are vacated during the year, congressional
appointments do happen.

But Hahn said the delegate seats in the proposed amendment could never be elected by students, which was problematic.

The proposed amendment evolved throughout the meeting.

Some Congress members were concerned that administrators involved in the Commission on Multicultural Understanding would meddle in the IUSA government, said junior Solomon Hursey, an amendment supporter.

Congress members changed the amendment so that various minority organizations would get to choose their outstanding members and send their recommendations to Congress. They would ultimately choose the delegate they believed would foster greater student involvement.

The amendment, however, needed a two-thirds majority to pass, and failed with 24 for the amendment and 13 opposed.

Another problem Congress found with the amendment proposal was that only one student would have the responsibility of representing a distinct population of the IU community.

Michael Coleman, IUSA Congress Teter representative and co-sponsor of the bill, said, “We can’t expect (62) Congress seats to satisfy the will of over 40,000 students.”

The bill proposers said they recognize that great progress has been taken to make positive strides in diversity on the IU campus.

“Diversity Day indicates that the University is trying to go into the right direction,” said sophomore Jordan Jacobs, author of the amendment. “There has been good progress, but there is still work to be done.”

But many individuals involved with the amendment said they believed that without these three delegate seats, their presence is not being represented in
IUSA.

“Overall, IU Diversity Day was a great success,” said second-year law student Ben Blair, official sponsor of the bill. “However, IU’s student government has not leaped into the 21st century.”