Student Senate President Aundre Price announced at Tuesday’s meeting that he is forming a temporary committee to take action against hate crimes at UF.
Price announced the formation of the Bias and Apprehension Committee, led by Sen. Monya Sharp.
The committee will review the university’s policies on hate crimes and create a plan to reduce the chances of them occurring on campus. The committee will deal with gender, sexual orientation, ethnic and racial discrimination.
After the meeting, Price said a potential action could be sending a message through listservs saying UF does not support hate and discrimination.
Price said he was mainly spurred to create the committee by a hate crime that happened on campus.
A petition supporting justice for Trayvon Martin was found with “F--k That N----r” scrawled in red marker.
Sen. Umair Asghar said the petition was on a table at a Students for Democratic Society rally for Trayvon. During the marching, someone wrote that and ran away, he said.
The Senate also unanimously passed a resolution condemning hate crimes and discrimination.
“You can spread awareness and hopefully change things,” Price said.
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe speaks at the Student Senate meeting Tuesday night about the importance of Arbor Day and voting locally.
