Three times this week Associated Students of Madison representatives brought cases against their own Student Council surrounding controversial divestment legislation and
Case One
Rep. Stephen Chang and Shared Governance Chair Omer
The judiciary issued a summary
Case Two
Grant Allocation Chair Ariela Rivkin, a Jewish student, filed a suit against Council alleging malicious intent and discrimination of the Jewish community.
After divestment was tabled, the authors proposed to add a new committee devoted to financial transparency. Rep. Glen Water, who introduced the bylaws change, said the authors took input from many campus groups but did not receive a final reply from Rivkin before introducing the proposal at the April 12th meeting—on Passover.
However, prior to the meeting, Rivkin had asked leaders to refrain from debating any proposal related to the sensitive issue while Jewish students were away for religious observance.
Her complaint alleges that not only was the introduction of the bylaws change on Passover discriminating, but Council members voted to have the first vote on
Student Judiciary voted to uphold an injunction against any further discussion of the bylaws change until an official hearing. Proponents of the legislation argued this would prevent a vote from ever happening as the 23rd session comes to a close next week.
Case Three
Goséy and Morrison filed a case against Student Council alleging discrimination of them as black women. They specifically cite Rivkin as singling them out in her petition and not
Cases two and three await
UPDATE 4/26/17: This article was updated to correct a fact error in Stephen Chang's name.