Associated Student Government senators changed their upcoming community service site from the Salvation Army to a Chicago soup kitchen after reviewing a newspaper report saying the Salvation Army is trying to discriminate against gays.
A July 10 Washington Post article cited a confidential internal Salvation Army memo that detailed the organization’s desire to seek a regulation from the White House protecting it from state and local efforts to ban discrimination against gays in hiring and to require domestic benefits for same-sex partners.
ASG originally would have packaged food at the Salvation Army warehouse on Sherman Avenue, but Speaker of the Senate Bassel Korkor said even the possibility of discriminatory hiring practices made the organization unsuitable as an ASG volunteer site.
“They do really good work, which is great,” said Korkor, a Weinberg junior. “(But) there are other groups that do really good work, just as good as the Salvation Army, and they abide by what I think are valuable laws of non-discriminatory hiring.”
But Salvation Army spokesman George Hood said the documents that led to the Post article misled reporters to believe that the organization is discriminatory. Hood said the Salvation Army has many gay employees and that the organization never has lobbied the White House to permit discriminatory hiring practices.
Korkor said he still had concerns despite Hood’s comments.
“There is enough of a doubt cast on it that I don’t want to commit ASG to it,” Korkor said.
ASG now will volunteer at Cornerstone Community Outreach, a homeless shelter on the North Side of Chicago.
“It’s a neighborhood that could use some help, and that’s what we hope to be for them,” Korkor said.
Also at the meeting, senators passed a resolution supporting nine recently approved cross-school initiatives, including the Center for the Study of Imagination, the Institute for the Study of Southeast Europe and the Undergraduate Legal Studies Program.
Senators also listened to the introduction of five new bills.
• Allison Hall Sen. Tamara Kagel presented a bill calling for the publication of the initiatives supported in the cross-school initiative resolution by creating a comprehensive catalog.
• Allison Hall Sen. C.J. Willey presented two bills to the Senate. The first bill would give students permission to loft beds in their dorm rooms; the second calls for more bicycle racks at locations including the Technological Institute and Kresge Hall.
• Elder Hall Sen. Jennifer Richard introduced a bill calling for the update of the WildCARD Advantage Program, which gives students discounts at many local Evanston businesses. The online directory of about 300 businesses has not been updated since October 2000, said Richard, an Education freshman.
Updating the listings and finding new businesses to participate in the program would benefit students, she said.
• External Relations Chair Jada Black, a Medill junior, and ASG City Council Liaison Brian Miller, a Weinberg sophomore, called for soliciting student input to help a marketing effort by the Evanston Small Business Association called “Buy Evanston First.”
