The Student Government Association's meeting yesterday marked its
1519th regular meeting. With just 19 Senators present, the SGA engaged
in a series of discussions, ranging from divesting in Darfur to the
recent hate incident on campus.
Student Trustee Mishy Leiblum
informed the SGA about an upcoming meeting of the Trustees where they
will discuss "increasing fees by 3.5%, in addition, raising housing
fees by significantly more than that." Leiblum also reminded the
Senators that the nomination period for positions including Area
Government standing, Student Trustee, or SGA President will be going on
until next Thursday at noon.
SGA President Elvis Mendez notified
the Senate about the possibility of a week-long event, presented by
both the Muslim Student Association and the SGA "dealing with
Islamaphobia, dealing with different issues about it with the Muslim
community on campus." The event would take place near the end of April
or the beginning of May.
Secretary of the Registry Jamie
Corliss brought attention to the issues surrounding the recent hate
incident involving UMass students on campus, and the forum that
discussed it on Tuesday evening.
"During that forum, a lot of
really positive dialogue and discussion came up. I want to extend a
thank you to everyone who went and I also want to encourage everyone to
continue this discussion and dialogue, talk about and realize what the
assault means for our community. When I say our community, I do not
mean just the queer community, I mean our campus and the atmosphere we
have here," said Corliss.
"It's a shame that the rest of the
administration, that claims to put students first, was not there. As
students, we have an immense power at this university. It is once again
time for us to utilize this power. Enacting sustainable changes in this
atmosphere is our responsibility," Corliss added.
MassPIRG
also made an appearance at last night's meeting, when its "Save Darfur"
campaign coordinator Stephanie Aines presented motion 2007-S19, "A
Motion to Support the University of Massachusetts Divestment from
Sudan."
"We're hoping to get UMass to divest. You can be the
first SGA if you end up voting tonight in support of divestment. There
are other campaigns working on divestment at the other UMass campuses.
So hopefully, all five will vote to support the motion. Then it does go
to a decision by the board of trustees, when they go to pass
divestment, it gets signed by President Wilson, and then the
accountants take the money out of the accounts on the list here," Aines
explained.
Aines believes that millions of dollars are being invested in these
companies, but it was impossible to track the exact amount invested in
each company through UMass' accountants in Shrewsbury because the stock
market is constantly fluctuating.
"The
roles of the companies are different," Aines said. "These companies
give money to the Sudanese government, and to the Chinese government,
Chinese companies directly, and other companies. So the Sweden company
(Lundin Petroleum), for example, they might be invested in Chinese
companies and Sudanese companies. The Chinese companies give money to
the government of Sudan, both money and weapons to fund the genocide."
The genocide in Darfur has displaced more than two million people, and the death toll is currently upwards of 400,000 people.
The
motion, which was passed unanimously, states "BE IT RESOLVED, that the
Student Government Association of the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, fully support a vote by the Board of Trustees to divest our
funds from the following, but not limited to companies" One of the
companies included was the well known carmaker, Rolls Royce, based in
the United Kingdom.
Aines reminded the SGA that the UMass
community divested from South Africa during Apartheid in the 1970s and
1980s. Aines also stated that the UMass community voted in 1986 to
divest funds from countries with similar racist and violent policies
leading to crimes against humanity. Aines added that the town of
Amherst, along with Amherst and Smith Colleges, have already divested
from Sudan.
Harriet Chandler, a Senator from Worcester,
sponsored a bill calling for a statewide divestment from Sudan, which
will be brought up in the State House on March 15.
