ASUI Sen. Zachary Spence was the first to bring up the idea to protect all veterans in the University of Idaho’s non-discrimination clause during a weekly ASUI meeting last month.
The original clause included veterans, but only veterans from the Vietnam War.
Spence said he had only briefly skimmed the clause once before and had thought it odd, but after it was brought to his attention once again by three individual students, he took another look and became passionate about changing it.
“My curiosity was peaked, understandably, because the Vietnam War has been over a long time,” Spence said. “The Vietnam veteran era status is required by federal law, and there was no need to take it out, but we could at least make the change so that it could include all veterans.”
Oct. 26, when the topic was brought to the table for a vote, not a single person stood to oppose it, Spence said. The resolution passed 14-0.
ASUI Vice President Kelsy Briggs agreed with Spence when he suggested the change.
“We figured that it had been long enough since it was necessary to have Vietnam veterans specified in the clause,” Briggs said. “With the ROTC program on campus, there will be Vandals that join the army and may fight in a war. When they come back home, we should absolutely not discriminate against them.”
The change to this clause would protect current and future Vandals from being discriminated against by any student group or individual because of their involvement in a war, Spence said.
This non-discrimination policy is a section that is mandatory for all student groups and organizations to incorporate into their respective constitutions.
“It says that we care about each other as Vandals,” Spence said. “We are a Vandal family and we stand together. And I think that if there is a part of that family that has not been addressed, then we care enough that students will come to the student government and say, ‘This needs to be changed.’”
Spence smiled as he talked about the unity and strength behind the vote taken amongst the ASUI Senate.
“It made me proud to be in the senate in which I was partaking,” Spence said. “Seeing the unanimity in a good cause was really inspiring.”
Spence and Briggs said they were proud to be part of a change that could ultimately enhance and protect a student’s experience at UI.
“All of us saw it as a good opportunity to voice our support to being an all-encompassing, nondiscriminatory campus,” Briggs said.
The resolution now awaits approval from UI faculty and administrators. Spence said he hopes other people feel the same way as the senate on this issue.
“This is something that I feel passionately about just because I feel very strongly about veterans,” Spence said. “It is on their backs that we have the freedoms and rights that we enjoy today.”
Nicole Etchemendy can be reached at [email protected]