BREAKING: No one turned up to the protest outside the GSU
It was a washout
Last night, BU Student Government held a meeting for the senate and the student body to decide on the fate of student government.
This comes just a week after the impeachment trial against Vice Presidents which Noor Turaif described “an unfair and illegitimate trial” on behalf of BU Students Against Silence.
The majority of the student body have deemed the Student Government Senate inefficient, and should be dissolved as they are not listening to the voices of those they are meant to represent.
It was the largest turnout. The room was packed with over 150 people.
BU Students Against Silence organized the protest against the survey released by the Student Government on Monday which they believe was “biased in its wording of the questions” claiming the votes excluded voters who said yes but did not complete the survey.
However, it was a massive failure.
Students gathered outside the GSU for 12pm, (an hour later than planned) and after waiting for two hours ended up leaving.
The protest has been rescheduled. However, its reasons still stand.
Despite the feedback from students to dissolve the Senate, a vote was made to amend the proposal calling for the immediate dissolvement of Senate, and the discussion for this proposal has been tabled for two weeks.
The result to dissolve senate prevailed with 177 supporters, compared to the 136 votes to gradually change what senate had in place.
“The reason we are dissolving it is because it is not representative of the student body,” said a supporter at the meeting, resulting in an positive response from the audience.
Protesters are furious, and will not stand with the Senate, who’ve been criticized by BU Students Against Silence for “misusing their unchecked power.”
Nick, a CAS major and a participant of today’s protest says”I felt like there were a small handful of senators who were invested in keeping their power and their position but i don’t think thats the majority.”
One of the signs being held outside of Marsh Chapel
Following the impeachment of Kimberly Barzola and Marwa Sayed, Andrew Cho sent an apology email to the entire university reassuring the restructure of the Student Government in light of the recent events.
“I accept responsibility where it is due for failing to resolve the problems within Student Government that contributed to the events leading to this point,” said the Student Body President.
A member of the senate in the audience described the meeting as having “a lot of issues because we lost the person who knew how to do it best,” referring to Stephen Chang and his resignation last week.
In a blog post from February 2014, which has now been taken down, Stephen Chang ranted about a guy named Blim and why he is a horrible roommate and person. The blog post was released to the public, causing Chang to quickly resign.
Students and senate members who attended Monday’s meeting continued to question the ability of the Student Government to make positive changes going forward.
“We’re not sure what’s going to happen” said RHA president Alanna Raskin which did not leave anyone hopeful.