The Justice

Media Credit: Julian Agin-Liebes Nipun Marwaha '12 was on Senator for the Class of 2009 Eric Alterman's council at the Union Judiciary hearing that took place last Saturday.

A dispute between Student Union senators questioning the constitutionality of the Senate's decision to use funds from a Senate Money Resolution to help bring Bill Ayers and Robert H. King to campus reached the Union Judiciary last Saturday, but the UJ did not release a decision on the case by press time.

The UJ decided to hear the case Saturday, March 8 after Senator for the Class of 2009 Eric Alterman filed a complaint against the Union Senate and against Senators for the Class of 2011 Lev Hirschhorn and Alex Melman, stating that the SMR violated Article IX, Section 1 of the Student Union Constitution by allowing funding for the events to come from the Senate Discretionary Fund. The section reads: "All Senate Money Resolutions must be used for Student Union Government projects and/or operations."

The Senate voted 10-8 at its March 1 meeting to provide $900 to bring Ayers, a founding member of the Weather Underground, and King, a member of the Black Panther Party, to Brandeis.

The main debates between both the respondents and Alterman, the petitioner, included whether the Ayers and King events were, by definition, Union projects or club projects, as well as to what extent previously passed Student Money Resolutions, such as $1,500 for the hopeFound Gala this winter and $500 for the Prospect Hill project last fall could serve as examples for projects that received Union Senate funding without prior Union involvement.

In his brief closing arguments, Alterman stated that "the Union's involvement was far too minimal and arguable to fall within the bylaws." Melman restated that the Ayers and King events were always meant to be events with substantial Union involvement and that the Social Justice Committee now co-sponsoring the events proves that.

Alterman's counsel was Massell Quad Senator Nipun Marwaha '12 and Student Union Director of Communications Jamie Ansorge ''09. The Union's counsel was Cstle Senator Nathan Robinson '11 and Ryan McElhaney '10 from the Office of Community Advocacy.

Continued...

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