At the weekly Illinois Student Government meeting, the senate debated over the ICARE workshop and a statement from a member of the public drew laughter from some ISG members, resulting from the speaker leaving the meeting. 

Breelyn Fay, a member of the community, was speaking against a lawsuit the University filed against the sellers of an orange “Make Illinois Great Again” T-shirt featuring a photo of Chief Illiniwek.

“They are trying to say they own the word Illinois and the color orange,” Fay said. “Right now you guys need to make a decision; either step back from this insane grab for power and the crushing of people’s individual liberties and actually stand for something.”

After some members of ISG laughed at her comments, Fay immediately packed her belongings and left the room.

“Regardless of however foolish or wrong you may think other opinions are, you make yourself look twice as foolish or wrong by treating them in a disrespectful manner,” Speaker of the Senate Sam LeRoy, senior in Business, said. “As long as I am speaker of this assembly, that sort of behavior is not known to be tolerated and I will do everything in my power to make sure voices can be heard in this body, because it is our job.”

With Sexual Assault Awareness Month approaching, ISG proposed an amendment to set up an ICARE workshop for the senators of the assembly. The resolution passed, but members debated whether or not senators should be required to participate in the workshop.

ICARE is a sexual assault bystander intervention workshop that was created to encourage students to intervene in and help prevent sexual assault.

Rahul Raju, senior in Engineering, added an amendment to make the workshop mandatory. However, multiple senators raised concerns about requiring members to participate in the workshop due to concerns that some senators may not be comfortable with the potentially sensitive topics relating to sexual assault included in the workshop.

A resolution on allocations to fund events run by ISG for Sexual Assault Awareness Month passed in the senate.  

Danita Brown Young, vice chancellor for student affairs, spoke to the senate and thanked them for their work over the year.

“A lot of times, students are not active or engaged in the issues that are impacting them, and I thank you for being aware and cognitive and always pushing to make this community better for students who are currently here, and our prospective future students,” Young said.

A resolution on ensuring sustainable practices in academia passed in the senate. The resolution recommends professors to include a statement about the commitments the University has made to sustainable practices on campus, such as recycling, reducing waste and decreasing wasteful practices.

Changes to the register, a set of guidelines ISG follows, were passed by the senate. Members of the ISG say the changes will make the exchange of power in ISG leadership smoother for the assembly.

The changes will move the swear-in of new senators to the last full week of the Spring semester, allowing for the new senate to resume meetings as soon as the old senate is done, not leaving a week without a senate.

The changes also make it clear that the new president is unable to appoint all new justices to the judiciary upon their appointment to the position of president.

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