SGA passes first revamped piece of closed captioning bill
SGA Representative Rafael Garza finishes responding to a question posed by another student representative during an SGA meeting via WebEx on March 15, 2021.
After weeks of debate, columns, and reiteration, the first piece of the closed captioning legislation passed during a Central Michigan University Student Government Association meeting March 15.
Representative Nova Moore's revamped closed captioning legislation was passed by the House and Senate. The legislation requested a requirement for professors to turn on automatic closed captioning during livestreamed lectures.
It passed unanimously without any amendments in the Senate, and passed through the House. One senator was absent.
In a joint House and Senate meeting, two other bills were also introduced.
One of the two bills focuses on LGBTQ+ inclusive housing. Moore introduced a similar bill the year before, they said. But the difference lies in specifically what Residence Life can do to make housing easier, Representative Rafael Garza said. Instead of having to appeal for co-ed housing, the legislation would allow students to directly apply.
"There is a possibility to get co-ed dorms, but it's an extremely long tedious process, and it's not fair or equal," Garza said.
The inclusive housing would create co-ed housing units, according to the legislation. It would allow LGBTQ+ students to opt into rooming with each other or non-LGBTQ students. Non-LGBTQ+ students can also decide whether they would like to room with LGBTQ+ students.
The first paragraph of the legislation had a list of universities with gender-inclusive housing programs. Such universities included Alma College, Northwestern Michigan Univeristy, and Michigan State University, according to the legislation.
Representative Katelyn King said it showed "CMU is behind other institutions in Michigan."
After the bill was tabled after following discussion, the other piece on revising CMU's mission statement was introduced.
It called for the addition to the statement.
“At Central Michigan University, we strive to be a sustainable, diverse, equitable, and inclusive community committed to the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, discovery, and creativity," the revised first sentence read.
The original statement read: "At Central Michigan University, we are a community committed to the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, discovery, and creativity."
It was sponsored by multiple organizations through letters of recommendation, such as the RSOs Spectrum and Central Votes, and faculty member Emma Powell.
The mission statement was adopted in 2010 by the Board of Trustees, according to a CMU webpage with the statement.
"The university mission statement is outdated, and subject to the misrepresentation of CMU’s values," she said in the legislation. "Therefore, leaders of sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus have recognized a need to update the mission statement to better reflect the social and environmental advancement happening on campus."
