Rowan Student Government Association (SGA) held its fifth meeting of the semester on April 7, where they signed their name to a document created by students advocating for free speech. SGA President Zackary Brown was out sick, so the meeting was run by President-elect Hope Campbell. 

A resolution was presented by Assistant Vice President of Student Advocacy and Community Belonging Yuval Saar, and Rowan Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) senator Jimmy Flocco, which would have SGA added as a signature for their “Protect Our Voices” open letter.

The letter addresses President Ali Ali. Houshmand and the Rowan University administration, urging them to recognize concerns about potential threats to academic freedom and student safety under the current political climate. It references recent national events, including federal actions at other universities and ICE activity, as evidence of growing pressure on academic institutions. The letter requests increased transparency, recurring student-focused town halls, and the inclusion of Know Your Rights information to better inform and protect the university community.

Saar explained what it would mean if the resolution was passed. 

“So resolutions themselves are not finding action. Just because the student government passes a resolution doesn’t necessarily mean that ‘Okay, we passed this, and now every single one of these action items is going to happen.’ Basically what a resolution does is it authorizes the SGA to be able to advocate this on the entire student body,” said Saar. “This reaffirms the idea that this[open letter] is something that is meant to protect the entire student body at large.”

Senator for Rowan Chabad Alexander Milman questioned why SGA as a whole has to sign on the letter rather than the individual clubs. 

“Instead of the entire SGA body, why don’t we just have it that if you vote yes, and your club will agree to put their name on it if you vote no, your club won’t like to abstain,” Milman said. “Because you don’t know what the rest of your club members would want you to do in this situation.”

Saar responded to Milman’s question by saying it’s in the interest of not just one individual.

“When you guys come to Senate, we do expect you to be voting in the interest of your constituents. So, the job as a senator is to vote based on what you do think that your constituents would want,” said Saar. “The reason that we are trying to pass as a resolution to have the SGA in general rather than specific clubs is because we do serve as the outlet to be a student voice to the administration. So we do have the connections as the excels to all our campus partners to have those conversations more directly.”

Saar also emphasized that if the resolution was something that they believed didn’t fit their clubs, they had every right to vote no and their vote would be anonymous. 

“If someone did feel that it wasn’t something that was appropriate for their constituents. They would have every single right to vote no, our votes are anonymous, so it’s not something that anyone else would have to know,” said Saar. “The only thing that would be presented would be the vote totals.”

The motion was passed with a vote count of 99 yes, six no, and seven abstaining.

Another resolution included freshman class senator Alexander Starick, who presented a bylaw that would add a senator for International students.  

 “International Students comprise a substantial population of our campus community, and just as constituents like academic classes, colleges, commuters, so on, so forth, have designated representation in SGA,” said Starick. 

The election for this position will be in the fall.

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