The Associated Student Government Senate elected members to the Election Commision, presented its first legislation of the school year and conducted its first code review at Wednesday’s meeting.
The nine-member Election Commission establishes guidelines and helps monitor the ASG presidential election in the winter. All nine spots were filled Wednesday.
One of the appointees, Weinberg freshman and senator Rayan Lahlou-Nabil, said he’s excited to play a role in ensuring fairness in the election process.
“(The Election Commission) keeps everything fair and keeps everyone in check and makes sure everyone understands what and who they’re voting for and the policies they’re trying to implement,” Lahlou-Nabil said.
Next, senators presented two new pieces of legislation. The first piece centered on the senators’ concern over the mislabeling of halal food in Northwestern dining halls.
The legislation outlined examples where non-halal ingredients, such as pork and wine, were labeled as halal in campus dining halls.
The senators provided photos that documented mislabeled foods in dining halls such as Elder, Allison and Foster-Walker Complex West.
The legislation also addressed student concerns of cross-contamination between pork and other meat items — highlighting the example of MOD Pizza workers using the same gloves while touching various meat toppings.
The senators who drafted the legislation said this is an issue that affects not just Muslim students but other students who have dietary restrictions or allergies.
Lahlou-Nabil and Weinberg sophomore and senator Nur Yalinbas worked on this legislation. They said if it gets passed in the Senate, they hope the administration will support them and listen to their solutions on educating dining hall workers and implementing food accommodations in the dining halls.
“What they do for Kosher, do the same thing for halal because necessarily, it’s the same exact thing,” Yalinbas said. “And I think that the steps they take for Kosher are pretty serious, so the steps they should take for halal should be serious too.”
The other legislation focused on a much different topic: implementing “Ryan Day” within ASG. Ryan Day, named after Shirley Ryan (Weinberg ’61), would occur on April 16 — Ryan’s birthday.
Communication junior and senator Ryan Lien and McCormick junior and senator Ryan Beam helped draft this legislation. They said the day is meant to celebrate the Ryan family’s contributions to NU and celebrate the community of students on campus with disabilities.
The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is one of many buildings named after the family, a research hospital for adults and children.
“Using the Ryan name for good and celebrating students with disabilities, especially because of Shirley Ryan’s work in that area, is a way to positively reflect Northwestern’s values, the students and the Ryan family,” Beam said.
Lien added that the legislation is small but would have a positive impact on the NU community, saying it gives a voice to those who “deserve to be heard.”
Finally, ASG reviewed proposed changes to its code with the senators.
One suggestion was to abolish the Senate’s athletic seat. McCormick junior and ASG Senate Parliamentarian James La Fayette said athletics is an enshrined Senate seat, but the commission that actually approves a senator to represent the athletics department does not exist anymore — despite efforts to reach out to them.
Expelling student groups whose seats are vacant for more than two weeks without trying to contact the Senate was also proposed. They’d be replaced with a different student group instead.
La Fayette also mentioned allowing the deputy speaker to introduce legislation that is co-sponsored by three senators.
The biggest proposed change to the code is codifying eight additional seats to the Senate that represent student groups and affinity groups, La Fayette said.
The seats would belong to Alianza, Asian Pacific American Coalition, For Members Only, Hillel, Muslim-cultural Students Association, Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance, Quest+ and Rainbow Alliance. La Fayette said right now, FMO is the only one with a codified seat.
ASG Senate announced that next week’s meeting will mainly focus on preparing senators for the Funding Senate, which is set to occur on Nov. 20.
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— ASG Senate passes legislation to honor alumni veterans and approve Election Commission guidelines
— ASG Senate implements trial run to modify weekly meeting structure, selects Election Commission
— ASG welcomes new committee members, supports senators in building legislative writing skills
