Associated Student Government’s Senate proposed an anti-racial profiling bill in support of six black students from Washington University in St. Louis who were denied entrance into a Chicago club and formulated ideas to enhance campus safety Wednesday.
In a campus safety discussion led by Director of External Relations Jilian Lopez and Director of Student Life Matt Bellassai, senators expressed their concerns about safety, including areas on and off campus where they felt unsafe and ways in which ASG can begin planning to work further on the issue. Several crimes near campus have prompted a closer look at the problem.
“I think ASG plays two roles – going to (constituents) and talking to them, and also listening and keeping your ears open for ideas on how they want to be kept safe,” said Bellassai, a Weinberg sophomore.
Handing out pepper spray, conducting self-defense programs and adding more emergency “blue lights” were other ideas the Senate discussed. Lopez, a Weinberg senior, said she hopes ASG’s SafeWalk program will resume. ASG ran a pilot program in the spring during Reading Week to see if students would take advantage of SafeWalk.
“The main point for us is to start a dialogue in Senate which will spread to the rest of campus,” Lopez said. “We want more ideas from the student body.”
As part of new business, Weinberg sophomore Tyris Jones and ASG President Mike McGee spoke to the Senate about a new bill on racial profiling.
Jones represents For Members Only, a student group that represents the black community at NU, and submitted the bill. He said he felt this was important for the NU community in light of the recent racial profiling incident involving Wash U students.
Last week, six black students from Wash U were denied entrance to the Mother’s Night Club Original in Chicago due to the club’s “no baggy jeans” policy. When the students offered to return to their hotel and change, the manager still refused.
A white student switched pants with one of the black students and was admitted into the club.
The bill, “Racial Profiling is Not Acceptable at NU or in Our Backyard,” states that ASG’s Public Relations committee “will send a letter in support of the Wash U student government” and promote the issue on campus to encourage faculty and students to speak out about the incident.
“A lot of NU students outside of ASG are engaged by this issue,” McGee said. “So as a first step we wanted to show we as a representative body are behind (Wash U). This is not something that will just go away.
“This is an issue that happened to Wash U students, but happens to NU students on a weekly basis sometimes. We definitely want to work in any way we can realistically to help with this situation.”
ASG will vote on the bill at next week’s Senate.
Also presented were revisions to ASG’s code. Under the new changes, all executive committee members will be referred to as vice presidents, and the vice president is now termed executive vice president. The code further requires officers of the senate to remain neutral when campus-wide elections occur.
During announcements, Students for Ecological and Environmental Development senator and Weinberg senior Julia Brook announced Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be SEED’s fall speaker. Kennedy will speak during Reading Week on December 2 in Cahn Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
