ASUW voted against conducting diversity training during Tuesday’s meeting, putting the measure aside until after spring break.
A clerical error beforehand removed the training from the agenda, and a motion put forth at the beginning of the meeting to put it back on was voted down by a strong majority of senators. Robert West, ASUW director of institutional development, said that the clerical mistake was no excuse for keeping diversity training out of the meeting.
“Though there was a clerical mistake in not including the diversity training on the agenda, the ASUW Senate has been aware of the training for weeks now and the omission of the training on the agenda is not a valid excuse to completely dismiss the event,” West said.
West also said recent events like the video created at Oklahoma University and the shooting of Tony Robinson in Madison, Wisconsin indicate that it is “one of the worst times to cancel and dismiss a diversity training.”
ASUW President Ahmed Balogun said he agrees with West’s position on the issue.
Sierra Johnson, co-chair of the United Multicultural Council, said the dismissal of diversity training casts ASUW in an ugly light.
“As an ASUW program, we are disappointed that they wasted the time of the individuals who volunteered to provide the training,” Johnson said. “This kind of action will make people less inclined to help senate with special events in the future.”
West said ASUW senators are mandated to conduct diversity training, but few senators attended last semester’s diversity training focused on the concepts of power and privilege.
This semester’s training was planned by ASUW Vice President Ricardo Lind-Gonzalez, ASUW Director of Diversity Tawsha Mitchell and the United Multicultural Council. The theme of the training was privilege once again.
Gonzalez told senators at the end of the meeting to vote to strike diversity training completely if they only intend to postpone it.
Emily De Wett, ASUW senator, said she voted against conducting the training not because she is against it, but because she feels the training should be conducted in a separate event, not during a meeting.
“I want to attend a training that has my undivided attention and is not just another agenda item,” De Wett said. “As an ASUW senator I absolutely think the diversity training is important. We need to be able to serve the students in the best manner possible and this training is a part of that. It needs to happen, but in a spate event focused on it.”
West said this training is essential for ASUW senators, “because they are elected officials who should be representing, to the best of their ability, all students.”
“Last night’s decision by the ASUW Senate to not hold a diversity training is a prime example of how systematic oppression and micro aggressions take shape,” West said, “and how they affect individuals who are members of underrepresented identities, even when not intentional.”
