ASMSU’s Student Assembly did the right thing in not approving a bill Thursday to add a seat for Jewish student organizations. Over heated debates, opponents argued the seat would not be appropriate because of overwhelming religious ties.
There are seats on the assembly for each college on campus, as well as each member of the Council of Racial and Ethnic Students, Council of Progressive Students, on-campus and off-campus living organizations and the greek system.
But this bill would have set dangerous precedent. Any student group, religious or not, could have demanded and received a spot on MSU’s undergraduate student government. This would produce too many voices seeking their own goals, and ASMSU would lose its focus of representing the university as a whole.
Diversity is an essential part of government. It creates a multitude of viewpoints that might not be explored in a homogeneous gathering of minds. But admitting every student group that asks into the assembly is not the answer.
MSU’s Council for Jewish Student Organizations and other groups would do better to focus their efforts on persuading their members to run for seats through their respective colleges. This would provide more choices for each college’s constituents. Moreover, this would create a true sense of diversity through a multicultural representation in ASMSU’s college seats.
The bill to add the Jewish organization’s seat to the assembly is not the first effort by an MSU student government body to diversify itself. Most recently, the Residence Halls Association added seats in 1998 for the CORES and COPS groups to increase its sense of diversity. Black caucuses were also given one vote for each of the five hall complexes.
But this case bears only minor similarities. The CORES and COPS groups are university-recognized organizations of social, racial and ethnic minorities. But any Jewish organization , although also dealing with ethnicity, inherently has a religious component.
It is important to note that religion and the state need to be kept separate - and this holds true for any religion and any part of the state. And as MSU is a state-funded school, and ASMSU is a part of its governing body, it is only right this seat was rejected.
Despite the fate of his bill, College of Social Science Rep. James Perra deserves kudos for his work. He took up a cause for a group who felt they had concerns and fought with dedication to the end.
We hope this will lead to more participation from MSU’s Council for Jewish Student Organizations, as well as many other student groups, in university governmental affairs.
A government can only be as strong and active as its constituency is, and it would be a great boon to ASMSU and the university to see this trend continue and grow.
