Senate
resolves to oppose atrocities against humans
By
Gerry Wachovsky
On-line Forty-Niner
Susana
Gonzalez, executive director of the Cal
State Long Beach California State Student
Association, gave a presentation to the
Associated Students Senate on Wednesday
pinpointing the importance of the organization
in relation to student government activities.
The
Association, which helps to foster the "free
spirited interchange of ideas and methods
of operation between individual student
governments of the CSU and CSSA," serves
as the "single recognized voice for
the approximately 400,000 students in the
California State University system."
Gonzalez reminded the Senate of its importance
when it comes to campus politics and making
decisions.
In
other news, the Senate passed the second
draft of a resolution jointly created by
Dana Lebental, campus conservation commissioner,
and Senators Hironao Okahana and Daniel
Rukhman, which requires that the construction
and renovation of any new building on campus
be built to current environmental standards.
Lebental said that the actual certification,
which costs $50,000, will allow Cal State
Long Beach to have "bragging rights"
against other campuses that are not as environmentally
sensitive.
The
Senate also voted to send a resolution opposing
"Crimes Against Humanity, Ethnic Atrocities
and Human Rights Violations" to Documents
& Bylaws for further editing. The resolution
is the product of the Turkish Student Association's
dissatisfaction with the original document
that passed last semester denouncing acts
of genocide, brought forth by the Armenian
Student Association. The two groups worked
together to create the new document, which
will have the Senate "[recognize] a
discrepancy in the facts brought before
[it] by the Armenian Student Association
and the Turkish Student Association."
Sen.
Rebekah Smith took issue with this, saying
she believed it would make the Senate look
inefficient, but Sen. Morgan Wheeler disagreed.
"We did not look at the facts,"
he said.
Mike
Hostetler, dean of students, commended the
Senate for urging the two student associations
to work together and "agree to disagree,"
as the new resolution says. "The mission
statement of the Associated Students, Incorporated,"
according to the resolution, "is more
suitably fulfilled by adopting a universal
standpoint opposing all atrocities against
all humans and human rights violations worldwide."
It also clarified that the "Senate
will not refrain from dealing with social
issues, 'if necessary,' but will in fact
refrain from dealing with, or taking any
position on historically debated and controversial
events." The Senate said that it hopes
that the two groups can work together and
remain on good terms, despite this historical
debate.
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