Students plan to push SGA to pass Inclusion Act  

CHRIS HART-WILLIAMS | Editor-in-Chief 

More than a dozen students from different multicultural organizations met on  Sunday afternoon to plan next steps to get Resolution 68 passed, a bill created to spread awareness of micro-aggression and structural inequality at N.C. State.

Resolution 68, also known as the Inclusion Act, was the first of its kind to be presented to the Student Senate. The bill was blocked by the Senators to bypass the committee review process and be fast-tracked.

Co-sponsor of the Inclusion Act, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Junior Class Senator Kelly Elder, presented the bill at the first Student Senate legislative session of the semester on Wednesday, Jan.15. She urged Senators to fast track the bill, citing that it was important that SGA show support for programs that would benefit students who wanted to impact the campus environment.

“It didn’t seem like it was as important as other bills,” said SGA Diversity Outreach Commission Chair Maurita Harris a senior studying psychology.

Harris said the Inclusion Act would support potential campus organizations efforts to host programs that would give students a platform to discuss racial micro-aggression experiences on campus.

“In response to structural inequality and the concerns associated with it, North Carolina State University’s Student Government will support: Student Government hosting a Town Hall focusing on Community Growth addressing micro-aggression,” the bill reads.

If  enacted as is, the bill would give the Diversity Outreach Commission $1000 to use as it sees fit to support University groups that wanted to raise awareness of micro-aggression.

Harris said that the $1000 line item may change once the bill is rewritten.

“For the future the money might change,” said Harris. “But the goal was always to have money attached.”

After the bill didn’t succeed in skipping the unpredictable committee review process, concerned students proposed changing the language of the bill to make it more direct, specific and include reasoning as to why it is important to the student body.

The Inclusion Act was sent to the University Affairs committee of SGA. Supporters of the bill wanted the bill to be fast tracked because often bills that aren’t popular to senators can sit in committee and die.

Harris said that’s what happened to a bill drafted in October that would alter how Columbus Day is celebrated on campus and honor Native American Heritage, it’s been months and the bill has gone no where since.

Senator Karli Moore, in conjunction with  former Student Senate President Alex Grandstaff, drafted Resolution 42, which garnered support from Native American students and much of  the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity community.

The Inclusion Act ultimately asks for resources to support programs that combat micro-aggressions. Micro-aggressions are defined as a forms of unintended discrimination.

The group of a dozen students agreed that somehow telling the stories of students who have experienced micro-aggression incidents on campus would help to localize issues of institutional racism. Events in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York that have brought national attention to the structural inequality and discrimination of minorities in the country.

According to Harris students from Sunday’s meeting will have a plan by Monday, Feb. 2.