Several students walked out of College Council’s meeting on Feb. 14 after the body voted against a bill that would have added three seats for Latinx, Black and first-generation low-income (FGLI) student representatives to the legislature. The bill, which required 10 votes to pass, received seven votes of support and seven votes in opposition. Two legislators withdrew from voting.
Afro-Latinx Student Association President Alisha Morejon (25C), one of the students who walked out of the meeting, co-authored the bill with College Council co-Chiefs of Staff Jannat Khan (25C) and Finn Johnston (25C).
“The whole point is to not just diversify College Council, but to ensure that communities who need to be heard are being heard because they haven’t so far,” Morejon said.
The bill, Bill 68CC50, states that College Council lacks Black, Latinx and FGLI representation because of “prevailing barriers to entry.”
“This has created an ecosystem where majority groups and communities on campus dominate the conversation and control of the legislative body,” the bill reads.
Additionally, the bill states that adding the seats would create a more welcoming campus where underrepresented students feel like their student government meets their needs.
Assistant Vice President of Finance Michelle Tucker (25C), who identifies as African American, said that she does not support the bill. Tucker stated that while she is in favor of having more underrepresented groups on College Council, she does not believe adding seats for specific identities is the best way to achieve this goal.
“It certainly invites a level of competition … between people for who best represents which group or which groups are underrepresented enough to have a seat,” Tucker said.
College Council President Neha Murthy (24C), who is a non-voting member of the council, expressed a similar sentiment. Murthy noted that adding seats for underrepresented groups “opens a can of worms,” as College Council currently charters 269 groups and it could be difficult to decide which groups deserve a seat. Murthy also expressed concern about how the size of the council if the bill passed.
Fourth Year Legislator MaKenzie Jones (22Ox, 24C), who voted against the bill, said that adding the seats would not help underrepresented students.
“I don't think legislative seats can encapsulate the needs to educate and diversify,” Jones said. “I'm an FGLI student myself, and I don't think othering students by forcing them into a position that only represents one identity is helpful. We need to consider intersectionality.”
Despite this, Murthy believes the bill would have passed if the authors clarified who would vote for the underrepresented seats, with Tucker adding that most legislators supported the bill’s general mission of inclusion. After receiving a question about the voting process when presenting the bill to College Council, Morejon stated “anyone” could run for each seat or vote for the representatives. The bill itself does not mention any voting procedures.
“What this is doing is more of a tokenistic representation,” Murthy said. “It seems like it's not getting at the root of … the problem. It's more a temporary solution, but I think the temporary solution was not thought out.”
However, Morejon said that she thinks the bill did not pass because legislators were opposed to adding seats.
“People had already kind of made their minds up when we first entered the room whether or not they thought it was a good idea,” Morejon said.
Morejon added that she has received a lot of interest from legislators about re-working the bill.
“I will probably rewrite it, but we'll see,” Morejon said.
Jones said that instead of establishing new legislative seats, the council should expand education opportunities and encourage underrepresented groups to run for roles that already exist. Tucker expressed a similar sentiment, adding that she did not face any racial barriers when running to be a legislator.
“We need to do a much better job at making sure students know that they have the ability to be involved,” Jones said. “I want to encourage students to run for legislative positions.”
Murthy stated that College Council could also host an information session for underrepresented groups in the Belonging and Community Justice Identity Spaces.
“This would be another step … to not force members of those communities to come to us, but actually for us to go to those communities,” Murthy said. “That's where the root of the problem is. We need to bridge the barrier.”
Morejon said that she is in favor of increasing educational programs about College Council for underrepresented groups, but expressed frustration that College Council has been discussing these opportunities for a “long time” without producing any change.
“That’s an excellent idea, but I don't think that that has to be one or the other,” Morejon said.“Just because these seats would exist does not stop Black, Latino and FGLI students from running for regular legislative positions.”
