The Associated Student Body Senate will now promote bias training for the legislative branch in reaction to the recent controversial comments and photos posted by Ed Meek, the university’s former assistant vice chancellor for public relations and marketing. However, many ASB officials believe this action will not be enough to truly make a change at Ole Miss.
Among several senators, Attorney General Austin Fiala spoke in strong opposition to the resolution during the ASB Senate’s meeting on Tuesday night.
“In effect, it doesn’t do anything,” Fiala said. “The resolution does not compel members of the legislative branch to go to bias training. All it simply does is it states the ASB Senate’s goal to have their members go to bias training.”
An issue many senators found with the resolution was its lack of enforcement mechanisms and legitimate penalizations. By definition, a resolution is a statement on the opinion or will of the legislative body; thus, a resolution cannot be enforced.
“I don’t think a resolution is as powerful as a bill or has as much meaning as a bill because a resolution is just a strong suggestion that anyone can blatantly ignore,” ASB Sen. Charlotte Shackelford said. “A bill is added into the code, and there are repercussions for not following it.”
ASB President Elam Miller addressed the senators about the roles of all branches of student government at Ole Miss, specifically about how ASB can effect change on campus through legislation.
“How can we make the biggest impact?” Miller asked. “If we’re thinking about ourselves in terms of resolution — that is not always the most productive way.”
The majority of senators stood in favor of the resolution, which was eventually adopted. Many of them said they consider it to be a clear display of ASB’s efforts to make Ole Miss a more inclusive campus.
After meeting with the co-director of the Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement on campus, Sens. Katie Dames and Cade Slaughter co-authored this resolution.
“After what happened with Ed Meek, I think one important thing we can learn from it (his Facebook post) is that even people who are educated and have value in our community can still have these prejudices that hurt other people,” said Dames, who also serves as the chair of the inclusion and cross cultural engagement committee.
Sen. Spencer Ball also spoke in affirmation of the resolution, claiming that the extensive process of writing and passing a bill to legally require such bias training should not be necessary.
“I don’t think we should have to be held to consequences to want to go to bias training,” Ball said. “I think we should do it on our own as an internal choice.”
Nonetheless, Shackelford, who is the chair of the government operations committee, said she plans to begin writing a bill to further address the requirement of bias training, immediately.
The ASB Senate also voted to fill the seats of three senators who recently resigned. The newly confirmed senators are Joe Caplis, Anna Hall and Arielle Hudson.
In their short speeches to the conventionally elected senators, each newcomer made clear his or her individual goals as senator.
Caplis said that he comes into the Senate with no agenda and simply wants to serve the student body. Hall hopes to advocate for a voting precinct to be created, and Hudson wants to better represent all students on campus.
