ASUN passes bill calling for cultural sensitivity

Check out the photos from the debate here.

It took about two and a half hours, but the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska senate passed Senate Bill 15 in a roll call vote 14-11-4.

This bill was one of two proposed bills the group debated last night. The University of Nebraska Inter-Tribal Exchange (UNITE) voiced concerns about UNL students dressing up in Native American headdress and war-paint at the Nov. 7 football game against the Oklahoma Sooners and again Nov. 21 at the game against Kansas. ASUN senators drafted the two bills in response.

The first to speak at open forum was Molly Young, a senior news-editorial major and the president of UNITE.

"To date, no official university body, unit, administration or faculty has released a statement condemning their behavior. Instead, those bodies have sent a message that UNL tolerates offensive behavior, especially actions that exploit and stereotype members of minority communities," she said.

The two bills had the same intent, and were even written together. The difference is that one — No. 15 — specifically mentions the incident at the Oklahoma and Kansas games, while No. 13 addresses the issues generally.

Young said passing No. 13 would send a message that the university tolerates this behavior.

"No tribe in Oklahoma was honored or felt it was necessary behavior," she said.

On behalf of the six students who dressed up, three stood before the senate and student body while one read a joint apology. The student who read the apology declined to give his name.

The students met with UNITE after reading the apology to the senate to get a chance to "clear the air." Three of the students — Richard, Drew and Chance — agreed to comment. Their intent was not to single out a group of people, they said. The choice to dress up was just an expression against the Sooners.

"Kinda hard to make a statement about someone if you don't know them at all," Chance said.

The students said they saw staff members at the football game, and nobody had approached them about their garb.

"I think what we derived from meeting with the group (UNITE) is that maybe we were the ignition for a larger issue," Drew said.

Chance said he was offended by some of the attention he and his friends have been getting. He feels they had been painted in a bad light. He was being accused of being a racist, he said, when those were not his intentions.

"I think we should be given an apology as well," he said.

Sarah Pierce, a senior English major and member of UNITE, was at home watching the Nov. 7 game with her husband. She left the room and heard her husband calling for her. Pierce came back in the room to see her husband had paused the television when the students appeared.

"I guess I was disappointed that my peers in academia would opt to don such apparel," she said.

Pierce had grown up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and received two calls from friends still on the reservation who had also seen the footage. She received e-mails from people on reservations all over the country offering support. Just a few weeks before, Pierce had been on the Pine Ridge Reservation recruiting students from her high school to come to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

"Up until now, I considered Nebraska an open-minded place," she said.

Pierce said she recognized that the actions of the students weren't meant to be offensive, and commended them for their public apology. However, she said action still needed to be taken.

"It's deeper than just you hurt someone's feelings," she said.

In the apology, the student said the sole intention of the costumes was to make a statement against the Sooners.

He said he and the other students involved have realized that those actions "had a much further reaching impact than we intended," and that it was "not the right way to approach that at the football game."

Speaking on behalf of Senate Bill 15 — which would specifically address the football game incident — was Sen. Justin Shilhanek, a senior psychology major and chair of the Diversity Strategic Development Committee.

"What I think is unfortunate about this is that UNITE had to approach us," Shilhanek said.

He said this issue was not one of free speech, but an indicator of a greater overall problem.

Both bills aim to work with the Nebraska Athletic Department to form a committee to create standards for fan behavior.

The intent of Bill No. 15 was not to reprimand the students who wore war-paint and headdresses, Shilhanek said. But some senators disagreed.

Sen. Matt Kelly, a senior biochemistry major, said he doesn't attribute intent to the students.

"What the four students did at the Oklahoma game was not an act of racism," he said. "I'm a little hurt and a little offended that I would be labeled a racist for not knowing the history of the headdress."

Megan Collins, ASUN president and a senior business administration major, agreed.

"Reasonable expectations were not there," she said.

She said one of the students involved told her that he felt the bill was a reprimand.

"I did not run for student president to reprimand a student," she said.

Sen. Matt Boring, a senior music major, disagreed.

"No one is trying to throw students under the bus," he said.

There was also debate as to whether the event needed to be specifically mentioned.

"(Government Bill No. 13) focuses on a universal and broad-based idea," said Sen. Jared Tidemann, a senior political science major.

He said that Bill No. 15 was limited as it only focuses on a certain event.

"Why limit ourselves? Why not acknowledge something universal?" he asked.

Sen. Lauren Garcia, a senior advertising major, agreed.

"I think it's important that we have something that encompasses things that could happen in the future," she said.

Sen. Ryan Fette, an educational administration graduate student, disagreed, saying that he thought one of the things Bill No. 15 did was remind people of the incident.

"If we don't recognize it, the fact it is not recognized officially, it is something these communities will have to remember," he said.

Young, UNITE president, said acknowledging the event in the bill gave context to racial sensitivity. When context is taken away, it takes away motivation to change.

The senate needed to address how they could best serve justice, she said. Students in the audience at the meeting spoke out in volume in favor of Bill No. 15.

"I still struggle with the fact that we are willing to include examples from other universities when we don't want to include an example from our own," she said.

In the end, the senate agreed on two things: There was no intent of the students to offend, and ASUN should have responded sooner.

"The blame does not lie with the students," Shilhanek said. "It's an indicator of a greater problem."

Later during the debate, ASUN Internal Vice President Brian Coburn, a senior biochemistry major, apologized to the senate and the student body.

"I think it's unacceptable that I did not do something immediately," he said.

The fundamental problem was a gut-check, said ASUN Speaker Tidemann. ASUN had to begin to set the precedent, beginning tonight, he said.

"I sat here as a representative for four months and did nothing," he said.

After the bill passed, Pierce, a UNITE member, said the university is taking a step in the direction of creating a culturally competent academic environment. She said the fact the meeting ran so late was a sign of the issue's importance.

Partway through the meeting Sen. Matt Pederson, a senior secondary education major, made a motion to postpone the issue indefinitely. The senate decided to continue the debate, and, after nearly two and a half hours of discussion, the senate passed Bill No. 15.

"It didn't turn out the way I would have voted, but hey, that's democracy," said Sen. Matt Kelly, a senior biochemistry major.

Kelly had an issue with the language of the bill, which he said seemed to attack the students in question. To him, it seemed the students weren't being offensive on purpose.

He referenced a similar situation discussed at the meeting — a student who wore a shirt that read "Gayhawks" was denied entry to a basketball game against Kansas. The shirt was particularly offensive, he said, because students generally have more awareness of the gay rights movement, while knowledge of Native American issues is less prevalent, he claimed.

The extra language in Bill No. 15 was important, Pierce said, because it provides a reference point. Something has to push progress, she said.

"I am elated right now," she said.

kimbuckley@dailynebraskan.com

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