News
SGA senate votes down new LGBTQ director
The Pointer
ajuhn217@uwsp.edu
The University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point Student Government Association student senate voted against the addition of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning or queer issues director to the SGA executive staff, last Thursday.
After much discussion on the senate floor and presentations of letters from the faculty/staff Gay- Straight Alliance and the student GSA, the senate voted 10-5-1. This did not satisfy the three-quarters majority vote needed to pass an amendment.
Members of SGA in favor of the addition have not taken this decision lightly. Rather, they are taking it quite personally. Senator Rod King abstained from the vote and resigned from senate after he heard the results.
“Wow, that was crap, because there are a lot of students on this campus that need this, and for them not to be able to feel like our senate would pass something so they would feel a little bit safer on this campus. Where they are spending their hard-earned money to get their education … with that, I hereby resign from the student senate,” said King.
Katie Kloth, SGA president, who openly identified herself as queer, has declared the subtraction of solid food from her diet until this position is added to the SGA executive staff (or until she graduates).
“I just want to say there has been a lot of people disenfranchised now,” said Kloth.
Kloth’s Facebook group, “Fast for LGBTQ Rights,” says, “We believe that everyone deserves to have a safe environment; we believe that everyone is entitled to love in whichever way they choose; we believe in the a world free of hate crimes to the LGBTQA[llies] community; we believe in advocacy for these individuals, paid advocacy for LGBTQA individuals! Stand with us, and refuse to eat solid food until this is seen to fruition!”
There are at least seven other schools in the UW System that have a paid LGBTQ affairs full or part-time directors.
“If UW-Stevens Point wishes to stay competitive in today’s academic climate, it must make further advances in advocating the acceptance and diversity on its campus,” said Julie Schneider, GSA advisor and member of the Faculty/Staff GSA, in a letter from the GSA executive board.
Another student, Eric Krszjzaniek, who has also resigned from the student senate, was against the amendment.
“If GSA has failed, then I will actively support and work with the organization to address discrimination issues on this campus, and I hereby resign from SGA to do so to the fullest extent of my abilities,” Krszjzaniek said in an e-mail in response to a concerned student.
Krszjzaniek said his main concern is that this position would take away from the GSA’s power. He believes the GSA should have a paid staff member for this position, not SGA.
Krszjzaniek also said in the e-mail he feels the addition of this position further emphasizes the idea of differences and dichotomies that is our basis of thinking. It emphasizes what is “normal” and what is not and that people need to stop thinking in these ways.
“There needs to be a different way as we are all a part of the same community… The ideology system is broken, and we do not fix a system by reaffirming the system,” said Krszjzaniek.
He said no one student should have their full responsibility of helping this community.
“Instead, shifting the way people think should be something that we all do, every single one of us, when interacting with others on a daily basis,” said Krszjzaniek.
There has been discussion among senators who are for this amendment about presenting the proposal to the senate in a different manner.
GSA and SGA are currently searching for alternatives to ensure that the LGBTQ community is represented in the future.
