On behalf of the student body, Student Government Association passed legislation Wednesday supporting diversity and multicultural education and denouncing discrimination.
The legislation was created in response to recent incidents of racial harassment on campus. At least five incidents of hate speech occurred against black females walking along McKinley Avenue at night. Those reports sparked discussion about discrimination and diversity issues on campus that affect all students.
Parliamentarian Betsy Mills, who wrote the legislation, said she originally wanted to propose additional safety measures, such as increased police patrol.
She spoke with Director of Public Safety Gene Burton though and was informed the police were already increasing patrols. Instead, she used Burton's suggestion to change the legislation into a statement of student support for diversity.
Mills credited Sen. Loren Ray for bringing the issue to the attention of the Student Senate at the Nov. 16 meeting.
"If Loren Ray hadn't been brave enough to bring it to Senate floor we wouldn't have known there was a problem," she said.
The announcement Ray made took her by surprise, Mills said.
"We can't tolerate this kind of behavior at Ball State," she said.
During Wednesday's meeting, the legislation was read, changed and voted on - a process that normally requires two meetings and multiple readings. Secretary of Governance Ashley Johnson asked for the rules to be suspended so the legislation could be passed right away.
"The issue exploded more or less on campus," Johnson said. "The administrations didn't have an idea, students didn't know what was going on. It's a pertinent issue and needs to be taken care of immediately.
Ray said he was glad SGA unanimously passed the legislation, with only On-Campus caucus chairman Ethan White abstaining from voting because he was unable to discuss it with the people he represents.
"When one or two act alone the effect is not that strong, but when they work with a group a lot can get accomplished," Ray said.
In other business, Student Senate passed legislation supporting the implementation of customized controls on Ball State University e-mail accounts. The legislation, written by Student Services committee chairman John Boone, would allow students to block specific e-mails sent to the entire Ball State community.
"This hit a lot of main points on letting the university know how many mass e-mails are being sent out to students," Boone said.
Students would be able to select which departments and organizations they would like to receive mass e-mails from and which ones they would like to block, he said.
After speaking with University Computing Services, President Pro-Tempore Asher Lisec said this current proposal would not cost anything.
Sen. Josh Daugherty said he was concerned about groups like Student Voluntary Services being unable to send out e-mails to the university community. Many of their volunteers come as a result of those e-mails, he said.
"We are going to look at the major offenders," Lisec said. "You do not want to send out e-mail to people who do not want your services. I don't think if there is someone who wants to receive e-mails from Student Voluntary Services they are going to check that."
White said he voted against the legislation because students could unknowingly block important e-mails, and he said he felt the legislation was too vague.
"It's easy to say something is inconvenient and just try to stop it when we should just try to improve the situation," he said.
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