The full Student Senate assembly voted on declaring May 1-5 as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Trans Folks (MMIWG2ST) Awareness Week during their last regular session of the year.
During Wednesday's meeting, First Nations Student Association Senator Alicia Swimmer presented the resolution, which passed unanimously, in hopes of commemorating her relatives.
“This is something that we're concerned about in our community because these are our relatives,” Swimmer said. “We are working in conjunction with other organizations in the community like Indigenous Community Center and School Social Welfare, Indigenous Studies, Haskell Indian Nations University to help bring more awareness to this issue that we face.”
The assembly also passed another resolution, unanimously, standing with the Jewish community at the university, condemning antisemitism on campus and within the local community.
Freshman Senator Blake Bailey presented the resolution criticizing KU for not doing more to counter antisemitic rhetoric by promoting and investing in the Jewish Studies program.
“Passing this bill as a student assembly speaks volumes, making sure that we're standing up with this community that might feel disenfranchised,” Bailey said.
The resolution passed 38-0 with two abstentions.
Student Body President and Vice President elections will begin on April 17.
