ASUI Senate passed a bill Wednesday to put $500 toward the 2019 Women’s History Month signature to assist with the cost of bringing actress, comedian and social justice advocate Franchesca Ramsey to campus as the keynote speaker for the event.
The bill, proposed by Sen. Montana Novich, passed with two dissenters: Sam Harrich and Jesse Smith.
“I don’t think its ethical to support this person coming to the University of Idaho,” said Sen. Sam Harrich in regard to an article he found that stated Ramsey tried to cut off a donation source for a fellow You-Tuber. “I think it’s fine that she’s coming to the University of Idaho, but I don’t think we should be giving her money to do so.”
Sen. Jacob Lockhart said ASUI should be supportive of everyone’s freedom of speech and added he was in support of helping fund Ramsey as a keynote.
ASUI Sen. Jesse Smith expressed opposition similar to Harrich.
“Not that I care that she’s politically left,” said Smith, who often takes stances on the political right,” because I think anyone should be able to speak. I just don’t think that ASUI would ever fund a conservative speaker and I don’t know if it’s necessarily right for us to take a political stance.”
The Senate also passed a resolution that urges UI to add a three-day weekend in the fall semester in place of an additional day of instruction. The bill by Sen. Mete Yuksel calls for the university to denote Indigenous People’s Day as a recess to promote optimal student, faculty and staff success.
“Several other public-land grant institutions have devoted not one but multiple ‘study break’ days in the fall semester in place of additional days of instruction,” Yuksel said in the bill.
The Senate also unanimously passed a one time-allocation bill by Sen. Juarez to pull $100 from the Senate allocation budget to reimburse the SSS Trio program for stickers used for first-generation day stickers.
Sen. Kristin Nesbitt presented a bill to allocate $350 to purchase snacks and drinks for students during finals week. A variety of snacks will be given to students in the library throughout the week. The bill will go up for vote at the next Senate meeting.
Ellamae Burnell can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EllamaeBurnell
Editor’s note: This article has been edited to clarify a previously misquoted statement.