Trustees' Prop. 2 response upsets students

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Tweet More than 125 students erupted in outrage when MSU Trustee Joel Ferguson answered his cell phone Friday while a student was expressing concern to the board about Michigan's newly passed affirmative action ban.

"(Answering the phone) just shows the lack of respect that the administration shows toward their students," said Claudia Gonzalez, an interdisciplinary studies in community relations senior.

Ferguson did not return The State News' calls Sunday night.

Students with black cloth covering their mouths protested at the MSU Board of Trustees meeting, holding signs that read "Listen to the Students!" and "Simon Says … NOTHING," in regard to Proposal 2's passage.

On Nov. 7, Michigan voters approved the proposal, which bans the use of race and gender preferences in admissions and government hiring and contracting.

Students were allotted 15 minutes for discussion with the trustees during public comment, but as the meeting was wrapping up, Gonzalez demanded university officials listen to the students.

"We just felt very silenced and disempowered," Gonzalez said. "It just doesn't seem that important to (the board)."

Some board members said they did not agree with the approach students took in getting the board's attention.

Proposal 2 is a final decision, and the students won't see much of a change, Trustee Donald Nugent said.

"We have an opportunity for non-germane items to be presented, and the fact that they decided to not follow the rules wasn't a positive way to make an impression," Nugent said.

Several students took the microphone one by one to let President Lou Anna K. Simon and the board know how they felt.

Je'Todd Smith, a premedical sophomore, asked Simon to take action against the proposal and stand by her students in fighting against it.

"As an individual, as a human being, where are your morals?" he said during the meeting. "You say you're going to do something — that is your word, and that's all you have. If we have your word, then that's it. We need you to understand that."

Simon agreed that the issue needed to be addressed.

"This has to be an issue that everyone needs to worry about," Simon said. "We have to do a better job."

Some students who spoke into the microphone did not allow trustees to respond to their questions and continued to pass the microphone around to other students. Simon said she felt the students didn't see her blog, in which she posted a letter responding to the passage of the proposal. The blog stated MSU officials will do everything within the law to maintain diversity at the institution.

Jose Villagran, an interdisciplinary studies in social science senior, asked Simon why she hadn't publicly denounced Proposal 2 like University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman did.

"The University of Michigan president has already come out against this proposal," Villagran said. "At this point, MSU needs to make the same push because without affirmative action, students of color and women stand to lose in this situation. We need the two biggest universities to be working together."

Simon said the university must continue working as a "team" — including dialogue between the administration and students.

"The question is where do you want to end up?" Simon said after the meeting. "President Coleman and I have been in touch with one another, and we will continue to promote diversity."

After the board meeting, LaKeisha Dortch, a criminal justice and psychology sophomore, was in the hallway with friends discussing what happened at the meeting.

"It's sad, after everyone said what they thought, (the trustees) just laughed," she said as tears ran down her face. "If you are president of the university, you need to stand behind your students. It just breaks my heart."

Dortch said she had an opportunity to speak with three of the trustees later in the day after the meeting during which time they further discussed how the university will approach the proposal.

"If they said they are going to promote diversity, there's nothing I can do except take their word for it and make sure their actions speak louder than their words," Dortch said.

Students from the Radical Chicano Student Union had been planning to attend the board meeting and invited other students to join them while at a meeting organized by journalism and creative writing senior Cyrus McNeal.

McNeal held a meeting Thursday night in Hubbard Hall for all interested students to discuss the proposal, saying the purpose of the meeting was to discuss it and develop a plan of action in response to its passing, he said.

"A lot of students were addressing me with a lot of concerns and questions," McNeal said. "I thought it would be good to get everyone together to show them, even though it passed, you don't have to worry because the leaders on campus are going to work to keep a lot of the programs on this campus."

More than 400 students came to McNeal's meeting in Hubbard Hall, which produced plans of action including a letter-writing campaign, plans to rally at the Capitol and a Facebook.com group called "The Movement." The Facebook group has more than 700 members.

Villagran suggested during McNeal's meeting that people join him at the board meeting Friday. He said it was important for students to voice their concerns to the administration.

"Affirmative action was cut, and this is a point of desperation for us to unify," Villagran said.

Lindsay Machak can be reached at machakli@msu.edu.

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