UPDATE: MU board to investigate Chapel issue
November 12, 2009
The Memorial Union’s board of directors formed a sub-committee Thursday to further investigate the issue of religious symbols in the Memorial Union Chapel.
The sub-committee will be made up of Lucas Novotny, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies; Brian Phillips, graduate student in political science; Aaron Gross, graduate student in entomology; and Talitha Fox, an alumni member of the board.
“The main goal of the sub-committee will be to gather more information and allow us to talk to more students,” said Aerielle Smith, a student union board member and senior in apparel merchandising, design and production.
The Government of the Student Body passed an opinion resolution stating that the GSB does not “endorse the removal of all religious symbols in the Memorial Union Chapel” Wednesday night.
The resolution was sent to the Memorial Union Board of Directors.
The resolution reads, “That Iowa State University is a publicly funded university and the issue of religious images in publicly funded spaces has been raised, and that the Memorial Union Chapel is one of these places on campus, be it therefore that the Government of the Student Body, at this time, does not endorse the removal of all religious symbols in the Memorial Union Chapel, and be it further that the Government of the Student Body encourage the Memorial Union Board of Directors to investigate ways to make the current space more inclusive of all students of various faiths, and be it further that all students be welcomed to add their own religious items into the Memorial Union Chapel in a respectful and conscientious manner, and be it further that copies of this resolution be sent to the Memorial Union Board of Directors.”
The first bill dealing with the Chapel issue was brought up five weeks ago by Jacob Johnston, off-campus senator and senior in mangement , and even with five weeks some senators did not feel they were ready to vote on the resolution yet.
Sen. Christopher Moe, senior in management and information systems, suggested that they wait to send a resolution to the Board in February and take the time to conduct a survey.
Sen. Luke Roling, senior in chemical engineering, said he didn’t believe a survey was a good option because the nature of GSB would affect what students would end up taking the survey.
Anastasia Bodnar, president of the Atheist and Agnostic Society and graduate student in agronomy, reminded the senate that she had attended a meeting two weeks prior and announced her plans to conduct a survey, which she had completed, but she had virtually no help from GSB members.
Vice President Chandra Peterson, junior in polirical science, then let Bodnar give a presentation on the survey that she conducted as well as two meetings with various religious groups on campus.
Of the 1,200 students that took Bodnar’s survey, 57 percent replied that they had never even been in the Chapel.
“The survey asked a lot of open-ended questions because I was looking for creative responses,” Bodnar said.
The answers of the survey varied, some portraying anger, some just thought the Chapel should be turned into a computer lab, and some thought that removing all the symbols may not serve students the best either, Bodnar said.
Sen. Sagar Chawla, senior in biology, said the University of Iowa has a stand-alone chapel, and no one has questioned it. Chawla also said that religion is not a zero sum game, no one has to win or lose.
Johnston, who wrote the bill, also gave his thoughts on the topic.
“Most of the constituents that I have heard from are against removing the religious items in the Chapel and would like to keep it as is,” Johnston said.
Johnston then moved on to why the Chapel was originally built.
“We keep getting away from the point that this building was first and foremost a Memorial Union,” Johnston said. “The Gold Star Hall, Chapel and the Memorial Union are three parts that make up this building. The library symbolizes education, and the Chapel, religion, which are the roots of patriotism.”
Bodnar tried to reason with the Senators and said that just because most people wanted to keep their slaves doesn’t mean it was right.
“You shouldn’t rely on the majority to tell you what to do,” Bodnar said.
The Senate then passed the bill by a vote of 23 to 11 to 0.
Then a motion by Sen. Anthony Maly, junior in political science, who had voted yes to pass the bill, moved to reconsider previous question, which again opened up debate about the bill.
Vice Speaker Jacob Wilson, sophomore in political science, supported this motion.
“What we just did was wrong, over the last couple of decades what we just discussed in this bill has been brought up,” Wilson said. “I ventured to say nothing, but diversity is nothing but an empty shell of a word on our campus.”
Wilson then continued his statement.
“We have a minority on campus that pay the same or more then we do. I’ve talked to the International Student Council. Why do we have a Director of Student Diversity? It’s tokenism,” Wilson said. “This is a travesty in my eyes, tradition is a huge argument we’ve had here, but the majority has not always been right on social justice in the past.”
Wilson urged senators who had already made up their minds to open up their minds, and listen to Bodnar who he said did all of the senate’s work for them.
Johnston later brought up the argument that the Chapel stood for fallen soldiers to which Bodnar replied she had served in the United States Army and was not trying to dishonor fallen soldiers.
Peterson, at this point, gave up her chair to Speaker Weber, as she did in a previous meeting that the Chapel issue was brought up in, to address the Senate.
“Of course the majority of students want to keep the cross, they are white Christians, we’re in Iowa,” Peterson said. “Please, for a second forget you were born in Iowa, put on a diversity hat and think about everybody.”
The motion to reconsider the bill later failed, and the resolution as a whole, passed.
Wilson withdrew the resolution he wrote which supported a religiously neutral space.