The gallery of the Illinois Student Senate, normally empty except for a few concerned bystanders and members of the press, was almost completely full at Wednesday’s ISS meeting. During the public comment portion of the meeting, many in the assembled crowd rose and addressed the Senate in support of a resolution that condemns racist behavior most recently brought to light by last month’s controversial Zeta Beta Tau and Delta Delta Delta exchange, and proposes a partnership with the University to start a diversity education program.

At the end of the night, the resolution passed unanimously.

“This is an issue that needed to be addressed a long time ago,” said Akinyele A. Oluwole, senior in LAS, who urged senators to vote in favor of the resolution. “We need more interaction between cultures. I feel like we’re going in the right direction. This isn’t about us against ZBT or Tri-Delts, this is the people of this university against oppression and injustice.”

Chris Garibay, junior in LAS, also supported the passage of the resolution.

“This is a very important issue in terms of my peers as well as future generations,” he said. “It’s about being accepted – not just tolerated, but accepted.”

The resolution, authored by the Cultural and Minority Affairs Committee, specifically mentions the Greek exchange colloquially known as “Tacos and Tequila” and recommends that the University’s Student Code be reviewed in light of such events. The document also calls for the creation of a student advisory board in conjunction with University administrators to aid in the planning of diversity education.

A diverse group of students filled the chairs of the Pine Lounge in the Illini Union, where ISS meetings are held, and responded to the proceedings with occasional outbursts of applause whenever the resolution was mentioned in a positive light.

Many spoke emotionally about the racially hostile atmosphere than can exist on campus, citing recent events as particularly inflammatory but suggesting that such events merely reflect the existence of a larger problem. Some spoke of the senators’ responsibility to represent the interests of the students that they represent.

Tensions ran high as senators debated the measure and many in the crowd rose to their feet and began to vocally oppose efforts by some senators to postpone a vote until next Wednesday.

“Stop playing games,” Oluwole told the senators, indicating that students in the gallery had come to see a vote, not just a debate.

Finally, after a procedural maneuver that forced a roll-call vote, in which each senator’s name is read off a list and their votes recorded next to their names, Student Body President Ryan Ruzic conducted the vote and announced that the measure passed without opposition.

Many in the crowd rose to their feet and applauded, cheering the resolution as a concrete step toward easing racial tensions on campus.

“I’ve never quite seen anything like this,” said Chime Asonye, junior in LAS and a member of the crowd that cheered the senate’s action. “Here it’s personal, we feel it, we’re affected by it and we’re willing to do something about it. This resolution is literally the result of grass roots activism, and people are responding in a way that’s profound. I feel ecstatic.”

“People think of student government as a group of people that doesn’t respond, but I think this resolution proves that ISS is something students can turn to in support of their causes,” Asonye said. Asonye is an appointed member of the Cultural and Minority Affairs Committee, but he said he did not help write the resolution.

Ruzic, senior in LAS and presiding officer at all ISS meetings, also felt that senators responded well to the needs of students.

“The number of issues that students get really excited about is small,” he said. “But whenever a large group does come to the student government, the student senate responds to that desire. If there hadn’t been a large number of people here tonight, I don’t think the vote would have been unanimous.”

Ruzic also said that ISS efforts to make a difference with regard to the issue of racism will not stop with the passage of this resolution.

“Student government does not pass an opinion and leave it at that,” he said. “We follow through. We will attempt to translate this resolution into action.”