The Nov. 28 Student Senate meeting saw six bills voted on and passed and brought up news of a meeting between Student Government representatives, campus police and students on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) role on campus.
News of the meeting was brought up by Connor Paschell, second-year studying electrical engineering and computer engineering, who attended the meeting. Paschell referenced articles published earlier by the publications Breitbart News and Campus Reform.
“The [articles] stated that the student body president and vice president met with the intention of researching the precedent for a public university having policies in which University Police is not allowed to call ICE,” Paschell said. “It is my goal to bring this to the attention to the Student Senate tonight to show that we as a student body are concerned by these actions.”
Paschell said that some people that read the articles saw it as an attempt to undermine law enforcement and the federal government, and that the actions could be seen as reflecting poorly on NC State.
Student Body President Jess Errico, a fifth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering, responded later in the Senate meeting by saying there were inaccuracies with the articles and that her administration’s goals were simply to make students feel safe.
“The Campus Reform article and the Breitbart article definitely have some factual inaccuracies that we can look at and compare,” Errico said. “As far as the concerns specifically over the actions and perspectives of myself, as Student Body President, there’s definitely a goal from myself and my administration to make sure that every single student on our campus feels safe, feels secure, feels supported.”
Student Body Vice President Meredith Spence-Beaulieu, a Ph. D student studying entomology, echoed Errico’s sentiments in an interview, saying that the overall goal was making students comfortable on campus.
Spence-Beaulieu said that the meeting was not meant as a setting for pressuring NC State to implement policies, like the articles made it out to seem.
“The meeting was between myself, Jess, campus police and concerned students of NC State,” Spence-Beaulieu said. “We were looking for clarity on NC state policies related to citizenship and just having an open dialogue.”
Earlier in the Senate meeting, Jodi Svetaketu, student chief justice and third-year studying foreign languages and literature, announced that the web tool Turnitin will be available to all instructors at the university in the spring 2019 semester.
Turnitin is a service that checks for plagiarism, spelling, grammar and more. Instructors are not required to use the resource, but its ability to scan documents for originality may be useful in some settings. In these cases, it is NC State policy that judgement on plagiarism will ultimately still lie with the the instructor, not with the service.
There were six bills up for second reading at the Student Senate meeting on Wednesday night.
R33 – Fossil Fuel Industry Divestment Act
Currently, NC State invests up to 6.3 percent of its endowment in an energy and natural resources fund, which can include fossil fuels while also proclaiming to focus on sustainability as one of their major goals for the five-year strategic plan. According to the NC State Sustainability website, they are working to “Engaging campus and community in creating a more sustainable future.” This resolution calls the university to divest those particular funds into environmentally friendly practices.
The resolution passed in Senate and has been passed to the Student Body President Jess Errico for her signature or veto.
R27 – Academic Calendar Communications Act
In the 2018-19 academic year, there are no reading days included in the calendars for the fall and spring semesters. At the Senate meeting on Oct. 11, the resolution was introduced to Senate and was debated. Senators expressed concern over the wording of the bill and how it would be handled in implementation so it was sent back to committee.
According to Senator Coleman Simpson, a fourth-year studying agricultural science and political science and senator representing the College of Agriculture and Life Science, it was sent back to committee, it was determined that the bill in its previous form did not have to exist because appropriate changes had already been made. The resolution was then reviewed to include that when the academic calendar is sent in the Student Services ‘welcome back’ email, it must include major changes and the chair of the Committee on Academics would work closely with the Student Body President to publicize major changes.
The resolution passed in Senate and has been passed to the Student Body President Jess Errico for signature her or veto.
Some class instructors currently require blue or green examination books. Green examination books currently sold in the NC State Books store are made out of recycled paper and according to the bill, only 4 percent of all examination books sold were small green books. The resolution encourages the use of green books and instructors not specifying the specific type of book to use. The resolution passed in Senate and has been passed to the Student Body President Jess Errico for her signature or veto.
After the controversial constitutional amendment passed by North Carolina voters in November, NC State senators are advocating for the use of North Carolina University photo IDs. The bill was also amended to include advocating for the General Assembly to consider allowing students to use their IDs from private and community colleges. Allowing these forms of photo identification for students is also being considered in the current draft bill that will be considered in the North Carolina General Assembly. The resolution passed in Senate and has been passed to the Student Body President Jess Errico for her signature or veto.
The Public Affairs Government Act and the Attendance Policy Oversight Act, both Government Bills, were also up for second reading at the Senate meeting. The former simply renames the Senate Committee on Public Affairs to the Committee on Government Relations, while the latter acts as a set of guidelines regarding frequent absences from Senators.
The Attendance Policy Oversight Act was initially voted on and did not pass, with 24 for, 26 against and 7 abstaining. However, it was later brought up for debate, was amended and then passed by Student Senate. The Public Affairs Government Act was also passed at the meeting.
