NOTICE: The new 2005-2006 academic year has started at Kent State University. As usual, the dedicated students of the May 4 Task Force student organization are meeting each Thursday evening at 7pm in the May 4 Room of the KSU library. I encourage all current KSU students to join this fine student organization.
The 30th anniversary of the establishment of the May 4 Task Force will occur on October 30, 2005. In 1975, on October 30, I was a KSU graduate student and I attended that first M4TF meeting in the KSU Student Center along with my blood-brothers Dean Kahler and Robby Stamps. As founding members of the M4TF, we helped launch an ongoing movement for truth and justice at Kent State which continues to the present day in 2005.
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Conservative KSU student government leaders failed in their recent attempt to silence May 4 Task Force students by denying guaranteed annual funding and turn the May 4, 2006, commemoration into a pro-war celebration.
KSU administration leaders smacked down Republican-conservative KSU Student Senate boss Bill Ross and forced Ross to drop his errant maneuver.
Here's KSU coverage of the recent failed Republican-conservative attempt to silence M4TF students:
The Undergraduate Student Senate decided last week to postpone voting on automatic block funding for the May 4 Task Force.
The USS will discuss the May 4 Task Force Bill further during the Allocation Committee’s Ad Hoc process, which is scheduled for sometime in April.
If passed on Friday, the bill would remove the task force’s block funding of roughly $10,000, or 1.75 percent of student activity fees. The organization uses this money towards May 4 commemoration activities. If the task force uses all the allotted funding, it can request more from the Allocations Committee.
The task force should go through the same process as every other student organization when planning events, said Kevin Folk, Undergraduate Student Senate business and finance senator.
“The purpose of the task force bill is to make sure everyone plays by the same rules,” he said. “No one student organization is above any other.”
If the bill is passed, it could cause the task force to reschedule events it had been planning since summer, said Sarah Goldstein, a past president of the task force.
“At this point in the year, we have to set up a schedule that we’d have to adjust,” she said.
The USS represents all students and not just a few student organizations or one in particular, USS executive director William Ross said.
“I cannot stress the importance of listening to all the undergraduate students and not just one student organization over any other,” he said. “We must treat all student organizations the same.”
The extra time will give students and organizations more time to voice opinions and concerns, Folk said.
“This a better avenue,” he said. “It gives us extra time.”
Currently, every student organization needs to bring its request for an event to the Allocations Committee. Each year, the senator for business and finance chairs the Ad Hoc Committee and reviews the guidelines from the year.
Contact student politics reporter Sara Macho at smacho@kent.edu.
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Because the KSU student newspaper supported this despicable trick, Kent May 4 Center director Alan Canfora wrote a letter to the Daily Kent Stater in support of the M4TF students.
Tom Grace (also wounded by a bullet in 1970), also added his voice of support:
Just as the Kent State administration recently reprimanded Undergraduate Student Senate boss Bill Ross regarding May 4 Task Force block funding, somebody also needs to put Stater editors in their place this semester. Why does the Stater continue to refuse to reveal the whole story of this doomed controversy manufactured by Bill Ross and a few biased Stater editors?
Recently, your newspaper has published two Stater staff editorials and two front page stories, and always fails to mention the most important point about this block funding issue. In 2003, it was Kent State students who voted overwhelmingly to grant annual block funding to the May 4 Task Force to ensure annual commemorations of Kent State's 1970 tragedy.
Why does the Stater prefer to repeatedly hide the fact that Kent State students voted to create block funding for the May 4 Task Force? Why deny the fact that in 2003, many campus organizations (including the Stater editors, USS, BUS, KSU Greeks and others) supported annual guaranteed funding for the May 4 Task Force?
Why deceive 2005 Kent State students about 2003 events, including that year's Stater editorial board support for this unique block funding? Will your editors continue to be so dishonest until you are replaced by probably more enlightened Stater editors next semester?
Please tell the whole story so the community can understand why sensitive Kent State leaders understand the impossibility of disregarding a 2003 vote by Kent State students in support of the May 4 Task Force. Any misguided attempt to subvert the 2003 Kent State election referendum vote will trigger national controversy.
Memory has become a significant area of inquiry for scholars examining the past. One of its leading practitioners, historian David Blight, describes public memory as the way “in which groups … construct versions of the past and employ them for self-understanding and to win power in an ever-changing present.”
Thirty years ago, upon learning that the administration would no longer sponsor a May 4 commemoration, students organized the May 4 Task Force to carry on the remembrance. Ever since, on the eve of the anniversary of the killings, the group conducts a vigil to honor those shot to death by the National Guard during an antiwar protest. On the anniversary itself, the M4TF sponsors speakers who remember the lives that were lost and examine the meaning of the sacrifice in light of contemporary events.
In doing so, the M4TF has enjoyed the support of the parents of the four slain students, of whom I am one, and the encouragement of nine other casualties. Understandably, we are not interested in seeing this occasion defamed by those who would pervert the meaning of the killings. It is offensive to those of us who took bullets on May 4 that the editors of the Daily Kent Stater would depart from the position of previous editors in an effort to cut funding for the M4TF.
Current editors seem dismissive of the student referendum in 2003, which approved permanent funding for the annual M4TF commemoration. There is, of course, a purpose to this. The Kent killings have come to be seen as a vital marker in time when millions of people tried to alter the foreign policy of their government. This is a political memory which many conservatives cannot abide and, therefore, wish to assign to oblivion. Evidently, this is also an endeavor to which Stater editors are happy to contribute their energies. Like-minded readers should be advised, however, that decades of tradition and the accompanying historical consciousness that has emerged about the killings — along with the force of a democratic vote — will not yield easily to those who would dispense with this legacy of dissent.
Thomas M. Grace, Ph.D. Buffalo, NY
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1977-78 M4TF leader Mike Sorohan added his support for annual funding of M4TF commemoration events:
I was disturbed to read in the Oct. 18 Stater that the May 4 Task Force once again faces the removal of block funding for its annual commemoration. For those of us familiar with the work of the Task Force over the past 30 years, this latest challenge is sad; even sadder, it’s not surprising.
The May 4 Task Force has been, at times, the sole caretaker of the memory of May 4, 1970. When the administration adopted a misguided public relations strategy in the 1970s of simply pretending that the shootings never happened (fearing that acknowledging the shootings would hurt enrollment), the Task Force served as the University’s conscience. Year after year the Task Force has provided thought-provoking, heartfelt commemorations and is a valuable source of education about the tragic events at both Kent State and Jackson State.
Removing block funding would seriously dilute the Task Force’s ability to meet its mission. Kevin Folk suggests that no student organization is above any other; I would respectfully disagree. The Task Force is unlike any other student organization, rather, it is a gatekeeper of American history. Nearly two generations of Americans today were not alive on May 4, 1970. A vibrant and funded May 4 Task Force is needed now today more than ever.
Mike Sorohan Class of ‘81, Co-chairman, May 4 Task Force 1977-78
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Unfortunately, the editorial board of the DAILY KENT STATER is very conservative during Autumn demester, 2005. Hopefully, in Spring 2006, new editors will be more fair toward M4TF students.
Here's examples of the recent anti-M4TF editorial bias at the DAILY KENT STATER:
Last Friday’s Undergraduate Student Senate meeting marked a magnificent example of student governing when Kevin Folk and Bill Ross proposed to remove block funding for the May 4 Task Force. The Task Force receives 1.75 percent of allocations money each year, which equals around $10,000 of unpetitioned money this year. This money is just a base amount, as they can request further funds.
Normally, a student organization must put together a program, research all of its costs, fill out the appropriate paperwork and present their request before the allocations committee, which is headed by Kevin Folk, student senator for business and finance. The May 4 Task Force, on the other hand, has $10,000 automatically allocated to them.
This new move does not mean that their will be no more May 4 ceremonies (regardless of how happy that might make some people around campus), but that the Task Force will have to work earlier in the year to plan their events, assess the costs and jump through the appropriate bureaucratic hoops. This editorial board, for reasons of equity between all student organizations, supports this proposal and encourages students to tell any and every USS senator how they feel on the matter.
The case can (and probably will) be made that May 4 is an intricate piece of Kent State history and our consciousness should always be, in part, with those four tragic deaths (and numerous injuries) that occurred that fateful, rebellious day. The case would then suggest to ensure that no snafu occurs in the allocations process the May 4 Task Force be given certain funds every year (probably with the right to request more if they do desire).
However, why it is a student organization’s responsibility to continue this legacy is not as clear. Certainly the university does their part by canceling classes for two hours on that day and could probably even put together some programming if needed. Why, then, should it become a student group’s responsibility, particularly when that student group doesn’t take responsibility to get the necessary funds anyway? It is for this reason, predominantly, this editorial board can not stand by block funding.
Furthermore, block funding, in general, is a bad idea. Actually, it’s a rather good idea, but could be used, legally, by so many different groups that most allocations could be blocked away before any new or other student group could get the funds.
Example: College students are still one of the highest spending demographics when it comes to cinema, both big screen and rentals, so a case could easily be made the International Film Society should be given block funding that would permit them to bring to campus one movie a week, to be shown on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, at no cost to undergraduates. Such a move would reach students where they are already passionate and foster a sense of community. Such a program seems like a good idea.
Fortunately, however, the allocation’s committee knows the best policy is to let student groups act quickly and efficiently to guarantee their funds. Any other way is just undemocratic and unfair. It seems painfully ironic that the May 4 Task Force, a group who celebrates the lives of those students that died while practicing so boldly their democratic freedom, would recommend any other way of receiving funding.
The above editorial is the consensus of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.
Undergraduate Student Senators Bill Ross and Kevin Folk are trying to make lemonade out of lemons.
Bill F0503, intended to remove block funding for the May 4 Task Force, was removed from voting at Friday’s USS meeting after being introduced two weeks prior. Senators Folk and Ross introduced the bill to, frankly, “level the playing field, and make sure everyone is playing the same game with the same rules,” Folk said.
The current block funding was initiated three years ago by then Senator Seth Kujat, who was also the president of the May 4 Task Force. That particular year, the May 4 Task Force had an allocations snafu that nearly resulted in it not getting any funds. Kujat’s initiation of block funding was to ensure that those sort of mistakes by May 4 Task Force leaders wouldn’t leave May 4 commemoration dead in the water. At this time, Chuck Rickert was the interim vice president for student affairs and he signed off on the funding.
The Daily Kent Stater editorial board has already supported Folk and Ross’ initiative in a previous editorial, but it appeared that they both folded like a house of cards in Katrina when the proposed bill was removed from consideration and voting. Folk and Ross, however, point to conditions outside of their control.
Both had many meetings with different advisers, student groups and Dr. Pete Goldsmith, vice president for enrollment management and student affairs, which changed their stance — particularly their meeting with Goldsmith.
“Dr. Goldsmith had said this was something he wanted a lot of time to look at and he, according to university policy, has to sign off on any changes we make to the allocation guidelines,” Ross said. “He said he would not make the changes until the rest of the changes come through at our ad hoc allocations guideline meeting. Even if we had passed it, the changes wouldn’t take effect until next fall.”
Ross continued, “This was something we wanted to do immediately, but since it’s something we can’t do immediately, we decided to use time as a resource to garner some support from the student body and to ensure that we have our case set correctly.”
Ross sees the whole ordeal as a means for the university administration to “kill two birds with one stone,” by not having to fund May 4 commemorations itself and by ensuring that there “would never be any more controversy with the commemoration.”
Ross said the university administration was “not really thinking about the future of this decision. Now other student organizations are coming to the USS and saying, ‘Why not us too?’”
Senator Ross’ stance on this controversy is a correct one. It appears that the university, who has always tried to respectfully distance itself from the PR blot that is May 4, is being too opportunistic with the USS and the allocations committee.
This editorial board continues to support Ross and Folk’s efforts to remove May 4 block funding and challenges the university administration to trust the student leaders put in place by the students to decide these issues. For more years than block funding has existed, it hasn’t existed and it’s time that we return to the way things were not so long ago before political activism was given block funding.
The above editorial is the consensus of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.
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OFFER YOUR SUPPORT!
Stay tuned for further developments as the May 4 Task Force continues to plan effective May 4, 2006, commemoration events.
If you care to send your own support of the M4TF students, send your own letter-to-the-editor of the DAILY KENT STATER:
Letters to the Editor The Daily Kent Stater P.O. Box 5190 Kent, Ohio 44242
e-mail: stater@kent.edu Subject: Letters to the Editor
Fax: (330) 672-4880 Attn.: Editorial Page Editor
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BACKGROUND OF 2005 CONTROVERSY:
OPEN LETTER:
Attention Ohio ACLU director Christine Link, Ohio ACLU attorneys, Akron Attorney Bill Whitaker, Cleveland Attorney John Lawson:
EMERGENCY! SOS! KSU RESTRAINING ORDER, ASAP?
Protracted political turmoil at Kent State University into May of 2006?
The May 4 Task Force (M4TF) student organization at Kent State University has been active since 1975 organizing annual May 4 commemorations and providing valuable educational activities related to the 1970 Kent State tragedy. After a 2002 controversy about KSU's zero-dollars M4TF funding, in 2003 KSU student voters overwhelmingly approved a democratic election referendum vote to provide permanent block funding of M4TF commemoration activities.
(see 2003 news articles copied below)
On Friday, October 21, 2005, at 3:15pm, the current conservative Republican leaders of the KSU Undergraduate Student Senate (USS) will consider passing a "bill" to arbitrarily eliminate annual funding and over-rule the democratic referendum vote of 2003.
In this controversy, after 30 years of dedicated May 4 Task Force activism, the current Student Senate leadership seeks to:
1) reject the democratic 2003 student referendum vote granting the M4TF guaranteed block funding;
2) open May 4 events to be sponsored by other KSU groups.
Next May 4 could get very interesting with competing constituencies rallying on the KSU campus at such a sensitive time for our alma mater. That's exactly what these Republican USS leaders are seeking. They want to fight the great Culture War here once again.
Meanwhile the M4TF will celebrate its 30th anniversary soon on October 30, 2005.
NOTE: Maybe we need a simple, fast restraining order in Portage County court before Friday, yes?
In 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 school years, the M4TF enjoyed this guaranteed $10,000 funding after the major controversy in 2002 when the M4TF got ZERO dollars allocated by the College Republican-controlled "Allocations Committee".
In that same year, 2002, Barbara Bush was paid $65,000 by the College Republican-controlled USS and Allocations Committee. If the M4TF is denied funding again soon by Republican zealot KSU senators seeking controversy, will the College Republicans get all $80,000 for Barbara Bush or a similar expensive conservative blowhard once again in 2005 or 2006?
The M4TF will meet Thursday at 7pm in the May 4 Room in the back of the bottom floor of the KSU library.
The KSU Student Senate will meet Friday afternoon, 3:15pm, October 21, 2005, in the Student Center Governance Chamber.
I'll be at the M4TF meeting Thursday night but not the Friday afternoon meeting. My sister Chic will speak, along with M4TF speakers and supporters, at the Friday afternoon USS meeting.
Let me know your plans to speak/attend either meeting or communicate directly with M4TF leader Taryn Leggett at: trlegget@kent.edu
The M4TF was started by KSU student government leaders on October 30, 1975 (30 years ago!). In spring of 1975, KSU President Olds had announced the end of KSU-sponsored annual May commemorations -- and in summer, 1975, our families lost our 14-week civil suit in Cleveland Federal Court.
How ironic that the 1975 KSU student government formed the M4TF to sponsor annual commemorations and educational programs--and M4TF students have done the job with weekly meetings and annual events since 1975--and in 2005 conservative KSU student government leaders now seek to destroy the May 4 Task Force.
Your voice will be very effective in this situation. Thanks for your continued support of this issue after all these years.
NOTE: Is it possible to go to court ASAP to get a restraining order to
A) prevent the destruction of the 2003 KSU students' voter referendum granting permanent funding to the M4TF students;
B) prevent the destruction of the M4TF after 30 years of dedicated educational KSU activism?
REMEMBER: the USS meeting is Friday at 3:15pm. We must act FAST.
I want to first apologize for the last email, I sent it to you in haste because I wanted you to have the information in case the Kent Stater contacted you. I do want to explain the "Bill" to you a little bit. Kevin and I proposed the Bill because we both felt it was unfair that any one organization received guaranteed block funding. The student activity fee allocation process that is currently set up is a very effective and efficient way of allocating to student organizations. Although we both feel it is EXTREMELY important to commemorate the events of May 4
th, we don't think that: a) one organization should have the sole right to do so, or b) that one organization should receive block funding.
I hope you will not take this as an attack against your organization. I also invite you to attend our meeting on October the 21 st at 3:15 in the governance chambers as the USS debates the Bill. Thank you and good luck on your mid terms.
William R. Ross Executive Director Undergraduate Student Senate Kent State University Office: 330-672-2980 Email: wross@kent.edu "Education is the best economic policy there is." -Tony Blair
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Here's a copy the part of the USS news release of most concern to the M4TF:
If passed, the bill would make the funds usually set aside for the May 4th Task Force to use for May 4th commemoration activities to be made available to all student organizations. Any organization interested in commemorating May 4th would then propose their conception of May 4th memorial activities to the USS allocations committee. The committee could then judge which organization's memorial activity idea was most worthy of the funding.
"The allocations amendment is designed to ensure that all student organizations have an equal and fair opportunity for funding to commemorate an event that is the shared heritage of all
Kent State students," said Executive Director William Ross.
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Here's copies of 2003 news re: M4TF referendum.
DAILY KENT STATER -- April 16, 2003
4/16/03
Resolution to fund May 4 permanently
Leana Donofrio Daily Kent Stater
Undergraduate Student Senate passed a resolution last night that could permanently establish funds for the yearly May 4 commemoration.
The resolution is an alternative funding route USS chose after the administration refused to accept a referendum that passed on the March USS ballot to permanently establish funds.
The administration would not acknowledge the referendum because university lawyers believed it could be in conflict with a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Two university administrators need to approve the resolution before the May 4 Task Force will receive 1.75 percent of USS funds. The Task Force organizes yearly events commemorating the day four students were shot and killed at Kent State during an anti-war protest.
Senate voted unanimously to pass the resolution that was written by Senator Seth Kujat.
Sheryl Smith, the director of the office of campus life, and Chuck Rickard, the vice president for enrollment management and student affairs, still have to approve the resolution, but Kujat said he has been told they plan to approve it.
"It is pretty exciting," Kujat said. "I am confident that it will go through with Smith and Rickard."
Undergraduate Student Senate is not sure what do to about the May 4 referendum.
Senate introduced the referendum to permanently establish 1.75 percent of USS funds to go to the May 4 Task Force for the yearly commemoration of the death of four students during a Vietnam protest in 1970.
But shortly before students were set to vote on whether or not to pass the referendum, Chuck Rickard, interim vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, told Senate he would not acknowledge the referendum.
Rickard, who must approve USS's allocations, said the decision has nothing to do with May 4. He said the university's lawyers believe the referendum may be in conflict with a Supreme Court decision and could be unconstitutional.
The referendum did pass last week, with 1,103 students voting to approve it. Now Senate must make a decision on whether or not to push to acknowledge the referendum or just push to establish funding for May 4.
"We are trying to work together toward a compromise," Senator Seth Kujat said of Senate and the administration.
Kujat, who drafted the referendum, originally said he wanted to fight to have it acknowledged. Now he said he is not so sure.
"If we continue to fight the constitutionality of it, the real purpose of getting funding will be lost," Kujat said.
Kujat said USS could establish funding by having a set amount of money approved by the USS Allocation Committee, Senate, the Office of Campus Life director, Rickard and the Board of Trustees.
Senator Sam Harper, who will be executive director of Senate next semester, said dropping the referendum sets a dangerous precedent.
"The university views the referendum as unconstitutional, and they will continue to see it this way until someone proves them wrong," he said.
Harper and other senators believe the referendum is constitutional and said they have consulted outside legal counsel who have confirmed this.
Kujat said he will meet with administrators in Campus Life to look at the alternative funding route, but said even if Senate drops this referendum, they could still argue the constitutionality of future referenda.
"We should no longer focus on this (referendum) as the only way to get permanent funding for the May 4 commemoration," Kujat said. "We should focus on working with the university on the constitutionality of referenda in general."
Senate is also in the process of wrapping up end-of-the-year business.
Senator Michael Jarnicki said he will be sending out another e-mail surveys to 50 percent of the student body after spring break to help the university determine the level of student support behind building a parking garage on campus.
Jarnicki said the administration now is proposing to build only one parking garage where Terrace Hall now stands and raise the cost of parking permits to $200.
He said student responses to the e-mail sent to Kent State accounts will help administrators know whether students support the new proposal.
Senator David Segan, who is in charge of the University/Community Task Force, said the group will be sending out two newsletters soon. The first, going out April 7, will include information on noise ordinances, the failure to disperse law and end of the year events.
He said the newsletter will go to residence halls, as well as to off-campus housing such as Town Homes, Holly Park and Eagles Point.
by Leana Donofrio DAILY KENT STATER student newspaper
The May 4 referendum, which would permanently allocate 1.75 percent of USS funds to the May 4 Task Force for yearly commemorations, also passed with 1,103 out of 1,752 students voting to approve it.
The university administration has said they will not acknowledge the vote because they believe it is unconstitutional.
Current Senator Seth Kujat, who proposed the referendum, said he will continue to work with the administration on the issue. He said Senate supports the Task Force getting the funds.
"This vote allows Senate to keep going and represent student opinion," he said. "We can now say if you go against this, you go against what students want."
2,736 students voted in the election, representing 14.5 percent of the student body.
DAILY KENT STATER student newspaper -- March 10, 2003
UNIVERSITY TO IGNORE REFERENDUM VOTE
by Leana Donofrio Daily Kent Stater
The administration said regardless of how students vote on the May 4 Funding Referendum this week, they will ignore the vote.
The May 4 referendum would give 1.7 percent of student funds to the May 4 Task Force for the yearly commemoration of the death of four Kent State students during a Vietnam war protest on May 4, 1970.
Students can vote Tuesday on whether the May 4 Task Force would be able to bypass the Undergraduate Student Senate Allocation Committee, which decides what groups get funding, and automatically get a small amount of student money each year for the event.
Senate received a letter from Charles Rickard, interim vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, Friday that said the referendum does not comply with a Supreme Court case, University of Wisconsin v. Southworth, which deals with the allocation of student activity fees.
Rickard must approve all USS allocations and said because of the conflict, he will not give the group the money, "regardless of the outcome of the balloting."
Senator Seth Kujat said he wrote the referendum because he wanted to ensure the May 4 commemoration would be funded every year.
Kujat, who oversees allocations, said the idea for the referendum stemmed from the Task Force's 2000-2001 allocation request that was denied by the USS Allocation Committee. Although the decision was later reversed, the Task Force refused the money.
Senators unanimously voted to approve putting the referendum on the USS ballot late last week after they gathered 1,600 student signatures in support of the referendum.
During an emergency meeting called by Senate Friday, senators held their ground, saying the referendum will be on the ballot.
"It is our job to represent students," Kujat said. "Students want this, so it will be on the ballot."
Senator Phil Eckenrode said after consulting an attorney, he believes the May 4 Referendum is constitutional and not in conflict with the Supreme Court case.
"The Wisconsin case has nothing to do with student referendums," Eckenrode said.
But the Supreme Court case called student referendums "problematic" because student groups could be funded or unfunded with a simple majority vote of the student body. The court argued this would violate free speech and view-point neutrality, which ensures "minority views are treated with the same respect as our majority views."
Senate is arguing the vote would not prevent the May 4 Task Force from getting funds because even if the vote failed, they would still be able to request money through Senate's allocations committee.
Senators said they hope to meet with Rickard and other administrators this week to talk about the referendum.
"I am not a lawyer and neither is Chuck Rickard," Eckenrode said. "It would be great if we could settle this, or we leave it in the hands of those who can decide if something is unconstitutional; a court of law."
Students can vote on the referendum tomorrow Wednesday at www.uss.kent.edu or in the Student Center.
DAILY KENT STATER student newspaper, March 11. 2003
DKS editorial: MAY 4 FUNDING
This measure would guarantee funding for the May 4 Task Force for its annual commemorations by setting aside a set percentage of student activity fees each year.
This issue has the strong support of the entire Senate, and with good reason. It speaks to most of the campus -- it appeals to those who dislike the constant harping on May 4 because it limits the money that can go to the commemoration. It appeals to those who support annual events because it guarantees it.
This referendum is a wonderful idea. It will do what should have been done years ago: Make May 4 a permanent fixture in lives of Kent State students. The events of 1970 permanently altered this university, and some argue, this country. Providing for permanent remembrances is the right and moral thing to do.
Voters shouldn't ignore the controversy surrounding the legality of this referendum, though. The university administration has said it will ignore this vote because it conflicts with a recent U.S. Supreme Court case dealing with student allocations in Wisconsin. The Senate disagrees, saying the circumstances here are distinctly different from the circumstances at Wisconsin.
To the university's concerns, we say "duly noted." The legality may be indeed be a concern. But it's not our role to decide that.
We support this measure to vote to make May 4 a permanent part of our lives.
