SMU students have differing opi-nions when it comes to the recent Student Senate vote on whether to add an LGBT senator.
Tuesday’s vote of 18 ayes and 13 nays failed to get the two-thirds vote needed for the legislation to pass.
Spectrum Co-President-Elect and freshman Samual Partida was disappointed by the vote and feels there’s a disconnect between Senate and the student body. He says the LGBT community needs to be heard.
“I feel that to ignore this group just kind of legitimizes any sort of action or behavior that is anti-LGBT,” he said.
Freshman Matthew Bolaños, an LGBT student, disagrees with special interest seats because he feels that students should only get one vote and one senator. He said the LGBT seat would have opened a large can of worms, because it would lead to other special interest seats being created.
Bolaños also felt that it was unrealistic to determine how many LGBT students were on campus, noting that sexuality lies along a spectrum and that there wasn’t just a dichotomy between gay and straight.
Junior Kelsey Pearson felt the vote was unfair.
“There are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students on campus, so I don’t see why they shouldn’t have representation that other people do,” she said.
Adding an LGBT seat would have set that community apart, sophomore Grace Choi said, but not in a beneficial way. Choi felt there were other ways to help them.
Ph.D. candidate Bryan Rodriguez doesn’t see a negative to adding an LGBT seat, saying that adding the seat makes sense if the group has a need. If nothing else, he said, it would add more diverse insights to Senate.
Freshman Chris Chung signed the petition to have an LGBT senator, but he said he also thinks that it’s important to get an exact number when deciding to add a seat.
“Numbers do make a difference,” he said, saying that senators have to know who their constituency is.
Junior April Zinober feels that the point of Senate is to represent all diverse campus groups, especially since Student Senate has a huge impact on campus.
“I think it’s unfortunate that although SMU has slowly become more progressive, they’re unable to reach out and actually represent all of their students, especially people who are not necessarily—their interests aren’t always kept in mind,” she said.
