Associated Students Inc. Senate on Wednesday passed a resolution that would make the Social Justice and Equity Committee into an ad-hoc committee.
The resolution passed 16-2-0 on its second reading.
Reclassifying the committee, which was created three years ago, to an ad-hoc committee would make it so the representatives would meet on an as-needed basis, rather than holding meetings regularly.
Vice President Leen Almahdi said the committee would meet at least once a semester to talk about campus life, but would meet more frequently when different issues arise.
Almahdi said many of the efforts of SJEC are duplicated by the presidential cabinet as it refocused its efforts to social justice recently.
“I think the original intent of this board has gotten lost because between what the Senate does and between what the cabinet does, it just didn’t have a lot to work with,” she said.
Sen. Stephany Triska suggested adding a resolve clause to the resolution in support of social justice and equity for the third reading, “just to make sure we’re still emphasizing the whole mission of SJEC in all the different bodies of ASI.”
Almahdi said that as an ad hoc committee, it wouldn’t be held to the same rules as before and would be given more leeway so people could participate in the discussions, as opposed to sitting in the gallery and waiting for the public comment section at the beginning and end of a meeting.
“I think that it speaks to a lot of the concerns that I’ve heard and I think it’s going to really give more space for the students to really feel like their voices are heard and I’m really excited about it,” Sen. Taryn Williams said.
The next ASI meeting will be held after spring break via video conference April 8.
In the spirit of Aloha Ohana, I was a member of ASI when SJEC was formed. We formed it because we believed that Social Justice should be a constant and not a part-time pursuit. And I am shocked that some of the same ASI Leaders who were outspoken about the recent Ethnic Studies resolution would vote to recategorize social justice as something only worthy of ASI’s attention on an “as needed” basis because the inescapable fact is that our work toward ensuring social justice is never done and requires our full-time attention. Stay blessed and healthy everybody!