To Senate Adjutant Tanner Beymer, the Title IX transcript policy is the most important piece of legislation ASUI has ever created.
At Wednesday”s ASUI Senate meeting, the policy passed with a unanimous vote.
“Passing it shows students are putting priorities where they need to,” Beymer said. “And we”re ready for the administration to do the same thing.”
The senate passed a resolution supporting the creation of a policy to mark transcripts with disciplinary expulsion when a student is expelled, particularly in cases of sexual assault, to prevent repeat offenses.
ASUI Senator Mckenzie MacDonald, who wrote the resolution, introduced it to the floor and encouraged the senate to pass it. She said she joined the project soon after joining the senate earlier this fall and that ASUI President Max Cowan asked her to write the resolution.
“I think it is really important for other institutions to know,” she said. “It”s about making not just our campus safe, but campuses around the nation.”
MacDonald, who also sits on the Student Disciplinary Review Board, said she wrote the resolution because she thinks that sexual assault is an overlooked national issue.
Beymer temporarily relinquished his position as parliamentarian to speak in support of the resolution.
“We heard a rather graphic Title IX case,” said Beymer, who also sits on the Student Disciplinary Review Board. “And we always find that it is unfortunate that we can”t do more to alert other people of the history of certain students on this campus.”
The resolution came shortly after Cowan received over 450 responses to his poll on the issue, with 83 percent in favor of the policy. Cowan said this boosted his confidence that ASUI was doing the right thing.
Beymer said the point of the resolution is to communicate to the administration that a majority of students support marking transcripts with expulsion. He said he thinks Cowan is qualified to take this project to the right people, and that the resolution gives Cowan some backing when talking to administrators.
“I am sick and tired of sexual assault being passed off as just another issue,” Beymer said. “If we declare a student unfit for our community, why should it be OK for us to send them off to another institution where they do the exact same thing?”
Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NishantRMohan