The Illinois Student Senate welcomed public comments from University students at their weekly meeting Wednesday evening.

Most comments centered around the Students’ Constitutional Rights resolution that “calls upon the Board of Trustees to commission a panel with student participation charged to thoroughly review the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations.”

The Daily Illini reported on Jan. 27, 2010 that the Director of Intercultural Relations Anna Gonzalez, former Chancellor Richard Herman and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Renee Romano wrote more than 50 e-mails to prevent registered student organization Students for Chief Illiniwek from holding its event “The Next Dance” in Assembly Hall. The event would feature the retired Chief Illiniwek’s performance.

Roberto Martell, member of Students for Chief Illiniwek and senior in LAS, spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting in support of the resolution.

“This is not just about Chief Illiniwek,” Martell said. “It’s something that needed to be clarified to help people realize that this affects every single person on this campus and not just people who are pro-Chief and not just people who are anti-Chief.”

Also present to speak was Kaytlin Reedy, senior in LAS. Reedy said that she supports the administrators’ actions and does not feel they reached beyond their jurisdiction.

She said that because “The Next Dance” event was eventually allowed, students’ rights were not violated. She added that an attempt to abridge free speech rights was not the same as actually abridging rights.

Vice president external and trustee candidate David Wall compared Reedy’s assertion to punching an individual; if an individual attempted to punch another and miss, he or she would still be charged with attempted assault.

Martell said he feels the review is justified due to the actions of the administrators.

“They used University resources, they used University e-mails, so they themselves were already wasting time,” he added. “This isn’t a waste of time; the truth is never a waste of time.”

Some members of ISS suggested the notion of Students for Chief Illiniwek applying for funds from the Student Organization Resource Fee Board next year.

“We have tried to avoid that (applying for SORF funding) because we don’t want to put undue stress on the administration,” Martell said. “I think that that would be an interesting test.”

Daniel Soso, junior in Engineering and student trustee candidate, also spoke during public comment about the University’s decision to not allow “The Black Sheep” to be distributed in University buildings throughout campus. He said this was another suppression of free speech.

“I’d like to also draw the attention to the fact that there are many publications made my students that are not allowed to exercise their right of free speech,” he added.

The student senate also proposed another resolution that calls for a unified campus to move beyond the issue of Chief Illiniwek’s retirement.

“I think that no matter what side of the issue you are on you can clearly see that there is a tension on this campus,” said Carey Ash, vice-president internal, “That tension serves no purpose.”

Both Ash and Wall expressed the need to focus on finding a new symbol to represent the University.

“We feel that we need a symbol to get behind,” Wall said.

A decision regarding the resolution was not made by press time.