Nearly six months ago, SGA senators tabled an advocacy request resolution regarding the potential official formation of LGBT group Reach OUT on Pepperdine’s campus. SGA waited to vote on the resolution and sent out a survey to students in hopes of gauging the student body perspective on the status of Reach OUT as an organization.
Reach OUT had submitted an application for official ICC recognition last semester and was notified in December that their application was denied, due to conflict with the University’s biblical mission.
SGA surveyed the student body, asking, “Are you in favor of Pepperdine University officially recognizing Reach OUT as a registered student organization?” Sixty-one percent of respondents said yes (they are in favor) while 39 percent said no (they were opposed).
On Wednesday, SGA brought the resolution back to the forefront of its discussion, but the discussion ended with another vote to table the resolution until next week. Before SGA’s next meeting, a committee of SGA senators will take a deeper look at the resolution and make any necessary amendments.
SGA was somewhat reluctant to table the resolution once again.
“What’s the point if we keep on tabling it?” junior Sen. Alex Claud said.
Despite hesitations, members came to the conclusion that the draft, originally authored by Reach OUT co-president senior Alexander Cooper, was in need of some amending to make it more understandable, clear and reflective of student opinion and satisfying for both students and administration.
The conversation regarding the resolution began with a discussion about what SGA senators believed their duties were in regard to the survey results and presenting those to administration.
“We have an obligation to represent the students because we were elected,” SGA VP of Administration Rachel O’Connor said. “But every week we vote on resolutions without quantifying them.”
In last week’s SGA meeting, each class representative was handed the results of the survey, distributed randomly to 20 percent of Seaver College’s undergraduate population on the principle that a 20 percent sample will yield the most representative results.
“I don’t know if the results were convincing enough,” junior Pat Moan said. “Let’s literally just add the student survey results [into the wording of the resolution] that is our job.”
Moan added: “We should do something about it with this information.”
“This survey does not serve as a mandate,” junior Class President Christie Myers said. “Instead it is our job to share the student voice with administration.”
Myers also pointed out the 39 percent of the surveyed students were against it, and thus passing the resolution could lead SGA to ignore a significant population of students.
Senior Sen. Jordan Womack, one of the volunteers for serving on the resolution amendment committee, expressed his hope for some sort of common ground.
“I think we all need to consider the administration’s voice as well,” Womack said. “I’d like to see SGA take a stance in the middle ground.”
The drafted resolution, which SGA viewed in this week’s meeting, began with a description of Pepperdine’s experience regarding its failure to recognize LGBT-related organizations in the past. The resolution then goes on to suggest that “the university’s reputation is negatively impacted by the perception that it is discriminatory toward homosexual students.”
The resolution calls for SGA to support the approval of Reach OUT and to recommend to administration that the organization be granted club recognition on campus.
