Members of the Student Senate will be working on a bill to push the University to make a policy on hate crimes, with a meeting Friday afternoon to gauge student opinion.
“[Friday’s meeting] is inviting students to come and speak about their opinions about the events that happened on N.C. State’s campus and what they feel the bill should include,” Morgan Donnelly, chair of the Campus Community Committee and junior in political science, said.
The Senate voted not to fast-track a bill from Maritza Adonis, senator and junior in political science, that called for the University to expel the four students who wrote racist messages in the Free Expression Tunnel last week targeting President-elect Barack Obama. Adonis said Wednesday after the Senate’s vote that the Senate should have taken more action, and she would take the bill to higher Student Government organizations to ensure it was processed.
The bill will now go through a special committee, which comprises members of three different committees within the Senate, Donnelly said.
“The bill doesn’t necessarily fall under one commitee,” she said. “It falls under University Affairs, Government Operations and Campus Community.”
Since the Office of Student Conduct is in control of the students’ punishments, Justin Brackett, a senior in political science and chair of the Government Operations committee, said the Senate’s goal in passing a bill is to voice students’ concerns.
“What we want to do is come out with a good piece of legislation,” he said. “We want to come out with something that makes every student [feel safe], something that will hopefully spur on our administration to take action on a hate crimes policy.”
The University does not have a specific policy on hate crimes, and the Senate has passed legislation before urging for one.
“It’s really tough to say what could come of this,” Brackett said.
Donnelly said a bill on hate crimes could help the University handle any future situations better.
“Right now, the University doesn’t have a hate crimes policy at all, and that’s why it’s been difficult to punish these students,” she said.
Kelli Rogers, a junior in political science and Senate president pro-tempore, is heading the new committee and said Friday’s meeting, which is at 5 p.m. in the Senate Chambers, will be an open forum.
“We’ve mainly heard two sides so far,” she said. “There are more opinions out there and I’d like to get as many opinions into the committee meetings as possible.”
The committee will meet again next Tuesday to vote on the bill, and Rogers said the meeting will still allow for some input from guests at its beginning, but the meeting will be more structured.