Debating, passing the Jena 6 bill

With a 75 percent majority, the Free the Jena 6 bill was passed despite about a half hour of debate and an attempt to table the bill. The bill was originally scheduled for 15 minutes of debate.

Many senators have been vocal about their stance on this bill.

Some question the facts that have been presented.

"The whole story isn't being told," Joe Sobecki said. "There are two stories to this."

In his examples, he brought up the reported possibility that the nooses hanging off the tree in Jena, La. were not in fact nooses but rope hung up by a rodeo club.

Other senators who have spoken up against the bill sponsored by Weinberg sophomore Brittany Smith as For Members Only senator have argued the issue shouldn't involve the university.

"The purpose of the resolution is to make a powerful statement," said Weinberg sophomore Jesse Yang who presented the bill.

Ivy LeTourneau who described herself as distanced from the Jena 6 incident as "a white girl from Minnesota" motioned to table the bill because she didn't think it was ASG's role to give voice to the issue.

"We shouldn't even be considering politically weighted bills in ASG," the SESP senior said. "I don't think ASG should be used as a megaphone for groups' message."

She said if the NU Coalition to Free the Jena 6 were an ASG-recognized group and presented the bill, the issue would have more weight.

The motion didn't gain the majority needed for it to be tabled. The bill was then voted on, and with a majority, it was passed.

"I'm really excited," Smith said. "I felt good ASG can make that kind of statement ... It's so blatantly clear it's racial injustice."

FMO President Mark Crain said Howard University, a historically black college, had condemned the outcome of the Jena 6, and that Northwestern — what he considered a "historically white institution" with a 6 percent black population — should follow Howard's lead.

He said the bill acted as a good way for students to get their voices heard.

"I think tonight students spoke out against injustice," the Weinberg junior said.

—ALICE TRUONG

ASG Preview

Welcome to The Daily's ASG blog!

Tomorrow will be the third Associated Student Government meeting of the Winter Quarter.  Already, ASG senators have discussed many issues they hope to get started on or continue working on, including a weekend Chicago shuttle.

At tomorrow's ASG meeting, senators will introduce two bills.  Both are new orders of business, addressing race and gender issues impacting Northwestern students.

Weinberg sophomore Patrick Dawson will present a bill concerning nondiscrimination based on gender identity.

Weinberg sophomore Brittany Smith will present a bill concerning the Jena 6, a case in which six black teenagers in a Louisiana town were charged in December with beating a white classmate.

The specific details of these bills will come tomorrow during the meeting.

—ALICE TRUONG