A debate concerning racism arose during ASMSU’s Student Assembly meeting on Thursday during a vote to fund a presentation by a political speaker who is anti-affirmative action.
The undergraduate student government assembly unanimously voted to allot $2,948 for the appearance of David Horowitz, who will speak on campus in March about his experiences with student activism.
Crystal Price, Student Assembly’s Black Student Alliance representative, left the meeting after more than an hour of debate about the speaker.
Price said she is against funding Horowitz because of his anti-affirmative action beliefs. She said she refused to support the event because Black Student Alliance didn’t receive funding from ASMSU’s Programming Board for Black Celebratory, a commencement to honor black graduate students and celebrate retention rates.
“When we want to do beneficial programs we are told it’s reverse racism,” Price said. “But when ASMSU and other organizations on campus support racism against the black community, it’s politically correct.”
Price left the meeting before the rest of the assembly unanimously voted to support the event.
“There was no point of being there anymore,” she said. “I don’t like the way ASMSU works because it’s a racist organization.”
But Kendall Sykes, Programming Board adviser, said Black Student Alliance receives support from the government, and Black Celebratory was the only event that was denied funding this semester.
“It would be different if we never funded their programs,” Sykes said. “It’s just that they lost a vote, and I personally think they are just pouting about it.”
The Black Student Alliance received funding for the Mr. Black MSU pageant and a jazz dinner, but not for Black Celebratory because the event is going to honor select black graduate students in May.
Programming Board voters decided the commencement event should be funded through the university because it wouldn’t benefit the whole student population.
“That’s not a good use of student tax dollars,” Sykes said. “How would you feel if your money paid for an award?
“ASMSU is about inclusion of all people no matter what race, creed or religion.”
Craig Burgers, chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, requested funding to bring Horowitz to campus. He said Horowitz’s speech is beneficial to all students.
“It’s not excluding people based on their race,” Burgers said. “It’s open to everyone who wants to come in.
“After all, conservatives, liberals and independents all pay ASMSU taxes and deserve to have their voices heard other than the most prevalent ones on campus.”
Melanie Olmsted, ASMSU’s director of racial, ethnic and progressive student affairs, said she is looking forward to hearing Horowitz’s presentation, but said Black Student Alliance’s Black Celebratory event should have been funded by Programming Board, too.
“I don’t know if it’s possible to have a program that benefits all students,” Olmsted said. “I would hope Mr. Horowitz would not speak about multicultural issues in a negative way, and would be an advocate for them.”
