Following heated discussion Thursday that lasted about six hours, ASMSU — MSU's undergraduate student government — passed a bill removing Great Issues from its programming board.

Members of the group said it worked toward promoting progressive voices on campus.

The Jewish Student Union and Arab Cultural Society introduced the bill to remove the 17-member group for hosting "events which actually promote mistrust, hatred and even violence toward minorities on campus" — specifically speaker and activist Joe Carr.

"Trust can be earned in 20 years, but it can be lost in one action," said Communication Arts and Sciences representative Juan Carlos Elizalde. "One action was bad enough."

ASMSU's Student Assembly passed the bill by the required two-thirds majority in a 14-6 vote. The bill was drafted due to the allegedly racist and anti-Semitic performance Carr gave last year at the Union.

"If it had been hate speech, Great Issues would not be standing behind it and he would not have received funding," Great Issues co-chairwoman Maggie Corser said. "I'm not sitting up here saying I agree with Joe Carr, but I do agree with his opportunity to speak."

ASMSU approves all speakers who appear on behalf of its programs, including Great Issues.

"I think we dropped the ball on that," said Mike Leahy, ASMSU representative from the College of Social Science. "ASMSU failed last year when we funded that kind of speaker."

Room 328 of the Student Services building was full as Thursday night became Friday morning, with students voicing their support for keeping or removing Great Issues.

"Everyone has a right to free speech," said Megan Ranville, a member of the MSU group Spartans Supporting the Troops. "But this is not a free speech issue. To use the tax money of anyone in this community in this way is inappropriate. To promote the deaths of our soldiers upsets us, our members and our families. You've never experienced the heartbreak of watching a loved one go off to war and never return."

Every undergraduate student pays a $16.75 tax to ASMSU every semester.

On Carr's Web site, www.lovinrevolution.org, he describes himself as "a revolutionary" and calls on his supporters to "shake off the cops and wake up our nation" in one of his songs.

Some students opposing the bill claimed the removal of Great Issues was race-based.

"It's hypocritical for a specific organization to call another one fascist," said Claudia Gonzalez, an interdisciplinary studies in social science and community relations junior. "Like there are way more deaths on the other side. But it's OK because they're just colored people — uncivilized, not as good as us."

Princess Souvenir, the programming board representative from Black Student Alliance, said she has seen every bill that has passed through Programming Board and called Thursday's bill unjust.

"Never has there been anything anti-Semitic or racist on any of the things Great Issues has resolved," she said. "The people who actually get a vote have never even been to a Great Issues event. So how can you possibly remove something that you have not even witnessed for yourself?"

This upset many who said they saw Carr's presentation, including Scott Lachman, ASMSU's vice chairperson for student funding. Lachman is a former president of the Jewish Student Union.

"I felt harmed," he said of Carr's presentation. "I was followed into the bathroom."

The bill's supporters repeatedly stated that the group had few accountable members, no mission statement or constitution and was practically inaccessible.

"I went online last night trying to find information on Great Issues and what they stood for, and I found nothing," James Madison College sophomore Eric Dropkin said. "The fact that my money is going to an organization and I don't know what it stands for is wrong."

In her argument, Corser referred to different groups and speakers Great Issues brought to campus in the last five years.

She said Great Issues faxed the bill to the American Civil Liberties Union, which told her that ASMSU could expect "intense legal ramifications for libel" if the bill went through.

A Women's Council member was afraid of the precedent that Student Assembly would be setting if the bill passed.

"It's a concern to have Student Assembly overstepping the boundaries and threatening the Programming Board," Women's Council member Lydia Weiss said. "It's ridiculous that we don't have any say over our own groups. If you're going to get rid of Great Issues, who's to say you're not going to get rid of Women's Council because you don't like 'The Vagina Monologues'?"

In the end, the decision came down to the issue of ASMSU spending students' tax dollars on such an event.

"If (Great Issues) wants to bring him in on their own dime, that's fine," Leahy said. "ASMSU represents students the speaker was encouraging violence toward."