A bill expected to establish a compromise for editorial control of the Red Cedar Log faced heavy discussion late Thursday night.

The measure, introduced by Chrystal Price, the Black Student Alliance representative for the ASMSU Student Assembly, and Women’s Council representative Melanie Olmsted, was organized through a combined effort by student government members and Red Cedar Log staff during an ASMSU policy meeting Monday.

“We made a lot of concessions,” Price said about the proposed settlement bill.

But, Red Cedar Log Editor-in-Chief Rianne Jones says the proposal is still not satisfactory in its current form. During Thursday’s meeting, Jones cited that the bill has its good points, such as the implementation of a diversity editor. And she said the yearbook has no problems with diversity in its pages and assured legal action may be taken if the bill was passed.

But she says the bill still breaks the law because it states that ASMSU has the option, but “the option is not legal.”

Debate for editorial control first occurred when Bryan Newland, the North American Indian Student Organization representative for the assembly, questioned the Red Cedar Log’s efforts to diversify its pages. He introduced two measures on Dec. 6 which would have stripped editorial power from Jones.

ASMSU provides funding and office space for the campus yearbook, but yearbook officials fought the bill and disagreed with Newland’s claim.

The bill also grants the assembly power to override actions that are deemed inappropriate as defined by anti-discrimination and affirmative action policies in the ASMSU Student Assembly Code of Operations.

Such overrides, though, would require the Student Assembly’s vice chairperson for internal affairs to provide at least two detailed assembly reports about the yearbook’s content. It also removes an article in the code of operations that prevents the assembly from overriding an action based on the yearbook’s editorial content. But the bill will have no influence on the 2001 Red Cedar Log.

To help gain favor of the bill, Olmsted and Price proposed each amendment contained in the bill be voted on separately.

“I didn’t want to see the bill dropped in its entirety,” Olmsted said. “I want to make a positive change and move forward.”

While Jones says the staff does not want the situation to escalate, she anticipates the possibility of a lawsuit being filed by the publication if use of the voting amendment is attempted at any time.

Jones has established contact with Mike Hiestand, a staff attorney at the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., and worked in conjunction with him on handling the issue’s legal matters.

Hiestand said the bill is unconstitutional and said the center would be willing to find a free lawyer for the yearbook if they considered a lawsuit.

The MSU School of Journalism has also sent ASMSU a letter in support of the Red Cedar Log.