In the midst of protests against the Culture War event put on by Turning Point USA, senators met on Wednesday, Nov. 13 to modernize part of Student Body Statutes, enact a Title IX task force, show support for a recent call to action regarding food insecurity and reiterate support for divestment from fossil fuels.

The meeting began with a presentation from Jayna Lennon, a fourth-year studying political science and executive director of Feed the Pack. Lennon spoke about a recent call to action regarding food insecurity.

“Feed the Pack is really looking to leverage as many connections as possible across campus to get more structural support,” Lennon said. “We’re at a point where our student leadership team, as hard as we work and as amazing as my fellow teammates and student leaders are, we’re really at capacity with what we can do.”

Student Body President Emma Carter, a fourth-year in sociology and international studies, and College of Sciences Sen. Molly Vanhoy, a second-year studying microbiology and chair of the Government Relations and Oversight committee (GRO), gave a presentation about the recent Atlantic Coast Conference Advocacy Days. Carter and Vanhoy visited Washington, D.C. and spoke with representatives on a variety of issues.

“We discussed issues such as graduate student fees, food and housing insecurity on campus,” Vanhoy said. “We talked about the Title IX changes and just a couple other things that are coming down the pipeline from the Department of Education that really affect our college students here at State.”

The presentation was followed by open-floor comments from Xenna Smith, a third-year in communication and editor-in-chief of Windhover. Smith spoke at the meeting in support of the protest against the Culture War event going on Talley.

“As a queer woman, I do not feel safe at this school,” Smith said. “I love and even represent as a Student Media leader myself. On your very own campus in the past week, two of your students have been posted on dozens of NC State-affiliated accounts, individual and organizational, bringing in national attention in the media and thus an onslaught of hateful and vile social media comments directed toward your own students, who are not doing a single thing to break a rule.”

Smith called for the removal of the videos from social media as well as punitive action against certain groups.

“We are asking for penalization of Turning Point USA’s chapter on this campus, but preferably the dissolution of this organization at this university,” Smith said. “For these clubs to be using their NC State-affiliated platforms to paint a picture of these students in a politically charged and demonizing way is wholly unprofessional and not representative of what NC State promotes.”

Later, three senators were approved to positions as Student Government officials.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Sen. Max Hagaman, a second-year studying communication and agricultural business management, was reappointed as parliamentarian.

College of Sciences Sen. Iain Dixon, a fourth-year studying computer science and applied math, was reappointed as Senate webmaster.

Poole College of Management Sen. Thomas Walsh, a second-year studying business administration, was newly appointed as press secretary.

Three pieces of legislation, GB 74, SR 75 and FB 83, were postponed at the last Senate meeting, and were read during this meeting.

GB 74 – GRO Public Affairs Correction Act – Passed after Debate

Vanhoy spoke about the rationale for this bill, saying it simply moves oversight of NC State’s delegation to the UNC Association of Student Governments (ASG) from GRO to the Public Affairs Committee. This would give the committee power to review actions, such as how the delegation voted.

Senators spent time debating whether the Public Affairs Committee was created with the intention of overseeing actions taken by ASG and mostly came to a conclusion that moving the oversight authority would be fine.

The bill passed with 41 votes in support, three against and one abstention.

SR 75 – Case Cody Constitutional Pronouns Referendum Act – Unanimously Passed

This resolution aims to set up a referendum during spring 2020 elections to alter the Student Body Constitution to include the gender inclusive pronouns “they/them/theirs” instead of “she/her/hers” or “he/him/his.” The resolution cites modern style guides, such as those of the Associated Press, the American Psychological Association and the Chicago Manual of Style, in support of this move.

President Pro Tempore Coleman Simpson, a first-year graduate student in agricultural leadership, said the Student Body Statutes were updated to use gender-inclusive pronouns in the 97th session of student government, partially thanks to the advocacy of former Senator Case Cody, who identified as gender nonbinary and used “they/them/theirs” pronouns.

Simpson also said that a similar referendum previously failed to garner enough support to pass in a referendum. The referendum was voted on during fall 2018 elections.

“We have always tried to be a very inclusive organization, so we wanted to do some mending to that through a constitutional referendum, because it requires a referendum to change the constitution,” Simpson said. “A few years ago, we tried this and it failed.”

FB 83 – Women’s Ice Hockey Funding Act – Unanimously Passed

This bill intends to allocate $1200 toward the Women’s Ice Hockey Club to fund things such as team uniforms and practice time on ice. Senators overwhelmingly supported this, saying that the organization was very thorough in its presentation and rationale for requesting funds.

GB 80 – Swear or Affirm Act – Unanimously Passed

This bill alters the oath of office taken by Student Government officials, changing wording to reference sessions of Student Government, rather than academic year, to be more accurate. It also changes the oath to say the official does “solemnly affirm” rather than “solemnly swear (or affirm)” to simplify the oath.

GB 81 – Chapter Three Update Act – Passed after Debate

In the interest of modernizing outdated language in Student Body Statutes, this bill makes an array of changes, such as replacing the word “presidential” with “executive” and writing out the abbreviated “SG” to replace it with “Student Government”.

Vanhoy noted one significant change, giving the Student Senate 15 class days to overturn a veto, matching the time the student body president has to veto certain pieces of legislation.

“Notable changes include giving the Senate 15 days to overturn a veto, which is also reflected in changes in giving the student body president 15 days to veto a piece of legislation,” Vanhoy said. “These were set into place based on the constraint that there is always a Senate meeting that falls within 15 class days of another, and the student body president currently has restrictions on when they can veto legislation.”

Simpson introduced an amendment to strike the portion of the act giving Senate 15 days to overturn executive orders. He said the timeframe is far too short, and past instances have shown that deliberating on executive orders takes a long time.

After pushback from other senators, who argued that senate would benefit from a time crunch to deliberate on orders, Simpson proposed an addition to the amendment to give senate 45 days, instead, to overturn an executive order.

College of Sciences Sen. Jacob Sebastian, a fifth-year studying political science, argued 45 days is far too long for deliberation.

“Forty-five divided by five is nine weeks,” Sebastian said. “That’s two and a half months. For me, functionally, that’s an absurd amount of time to sit on a veto. Again, I think if something were to be vetoed, the sense of the Senate needs to be immediate for me to feel like it’s legitimate. For me, personally, I think 45 is just way too long.”

The amendment eventually failed entirely.

The bill eventually passed with 30 votes in support, three against and three abstentions.

R 85 – Title IX Student Support Act – Unanimously Passed

In the interest of eliminating sexual harassment, this resolution recommends creating a Title IX task force under the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity. The task force would consist of representatives from various organizations on campus, such as the Women’s Center and the Graduate Student Association, and would research whether lack of legal representation options is a barrier to reporting instances of sexual harassment.

College of Humanities and Social Sciences Sen. Erinn Foote, a second-year studying political science and philosophy, gave a brief explanation of the resolution’s purpose.

“Essentially, the resolution is acknowledging there are systematic issues with Title IX here and calling on the university to create a task force,” Foote said. “Several members and I have had conversations with campus partners, and it is my understanding that there is support and buy-in from the Title IX office.”

Vanhoy also spoke in favor of this resolution, saying not only that there are significant barriers to reporting, but dealing with Title IX reports after submission can be difficult. She said that taking a deeper look at this issue would be beneficial.

“I can’t tell you how many times, as a person who goes to NC State, I’ve had to submit Title IX forms,” Vanhoy said. “It always takes so much courage to report something, and then a lot of barriers exist after you report something. This legislation works through trying to remove some of the barriers that make it hard for people to put their lives back together after something traumatic happens to them.”

FB 86 – Greater Good Textile Group Funding Act – Passed after Debate

The Greater Good Textile Group, a student organization promoting textile sustainability, requested $1000 to purchase t-shirts for a fundraiser event, and the Finance Committee supported giving the organization $892, as opposed to the full amount.

The reason this amount was allocated was so the organization did not have to draw more money from bank reserves, which would bring them below required levels, according to Walsh.

The bill eventually passed with 42 votes in support, two against and zero abstentions.

R 94 – The Food and Housing Call to Action Support Act – Unanimously Passed

NC State’s Food and Housing Security Initiative reported that 14% of students experienced low food security, according to figures from October 2017. Knowing this, the resolution is Senate’s formal stance, supporting a recent call to action from the Pack Essentials Steering Committee to address food and housing insecurity.

R 63 – Fossil Fuel Divestment Act – Unanimously Passed

This resolution cites a previously passed resolution from the 98th session of Student Government, R 33 – Fossil Fuel Industry Divestment Act.It also cites other organizations that have divested themselves from fossil fuels, such as the University of California System, which divested due to “long-term risk to generating strong financial returns for UC’s diversified investments.”

The resolution urges NC State to divest from fossil fuels and calls NC State’s ASG delegation to bring forward legislation to encourage all UNC System schools to divest from fossil fuels.

Graduate and Lifelong Education Sen. James Withrow, a Ph.D. student in entomology and biology, said while this resolution seems redundant, it is necessary as the fight to support divestment is ongoing.

“This is an ongoing thing, and I think it makes sense for us to continue lobbying on this issue from session to session,” Withrow said. “The kind of specific motivating thing was that, I think in September, the entire University of California system announced they were divesting from fossil fuels investments, specifically citing the fiduciary responsibility of them being bad investments for the university.”