Cait Mckinzie
The speaking podium of the ASCSU senate chamber Jan. 31.
Following a protest Wednesday, May 1, in the Associated Students of Colorado State University senate chambers in regard to President Nick DeSalvo’s decision to not sign Bill #5319, “The Humanity and Community Act,” several members of the organization, including DeSalvo himself, released statements on social media regarding the decision.
“The Humanity and Community Act,” which, among other things, condemns the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and officially calls for a ceasefire in Gaza on behalf of ASCSU, was passed in the senate by way of a 16-2-5 vote.
In his statement released on the official ASCSU Instagram page, DeSalvo explained his decision to not sign the bill.
“I respect the decision of my peers, but I do not feel as though it is my place as student body president to determine a country is guilty of committing genocide when the International Court of Justice could not definitively make that claim,” DeSalvo’s statement reads. “I am and always have been prepared to sign this bill with one amendment: replacing ‘genocide’ with ‘war crimes.’”
Following the statement from DeSalvo, several members of ASCSU released their own statements regarding the bill and DeSalvo’s words, including Senator-Emeritus Sammy Trout, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leticia Madrigal-Tapia and Director of Health Jorja Whyte.
Trout, Madrigal-Tapia and Whyte all released their statements on their personal social media accounts, but each identified themselves by their positions in ASCSU and expressed disappointment with DeSalvo’s statement and lack of action on Bill #5319.
“I urge our elected student body president, who claims to be in representation of the 33,000 Rams on campus, to take a critical look as to what representation truly means,” Madrigal-Tapia’s statement reads. “To say that you represent these students means you also represent students with oppressed identities. This also entails accepting the responsibility, particularly as someone who holds privilege as a white man, to fully uphold these values.”
The statement released by Whyte also spoke to the idea of the responsibility of someone in a position of power and how it relates to public statements on the issue.
“As the director of health, my mission is to increase the holistic wellbeing of EVERY single student here at CSU,” Whyte’s statement reads. “I feel it is my duty and responsibility to make an explicit statement condemning the decision of ASCSU’s president. … We have a pressing responsibility to show up for humankind.”
Whyte’s statement has drawn the most attention, as Whyte is the only returning member of the cabinet to publicly release an official statement.
Like Trout and Madrigal-Tapia, Whyte received both support and disapproval in response to her statement, but the largest response came from the leadership within the ASCSU executive branch.
Whyte said she received a message from Vice President-elect Braxton Dietz early Friday morning requesting a meeting to discuss the concerns expressed in her statement.
A meeting was set for that afternoon between Whyte, Dietz, DeSalvo and current Deputy Director of Health Jakye Nunley. Nunley was confirmed by the ASCSU senate as the next chief of staff and will officially take over that role June 1.
The meeting was initially supposed to be about the statement itself and the fact that Whyte sent the statement to an email chain that included all of ASCSU staff. Madrigal-Tapia did the same before her but wasn’t spoken to about it, Whyte said.
The meeting focused instead on whether releasing the statement at all was OK.
“(I was told that) to use my position as a platform to issue my statement was not acceptable,” Whyte said.
“If I have to lose this job to stand up for human rights, that’s what it is. If that’s what they’re going to do to me, that’s a decision that they are making.” -Jorja Whyte, ASCSU director of health
When Whyte asked why DeSalvo could release a statement but members of the executive cabinet could not, she was told the responsibilities of the job as president empower him to do so.
Whyte then reiterated that she felt she should also have the power to do so in her role and said she would not “compromise (her) values for this position.”
DeSalvo told her she was “welcome to stop collecting a paycheck from this organization” if that was how she felt, effectively ending the meeting, Whyte said.
Dietz and Nunley approached Whyte after the meeting and spoke with her once more, this time without DeSalvo present.
This is when Whyte was informed they would be postponing her ratification by the senate as director of basic needs for the upcoming year. The ratification was scheduled to take place alongside the rest of the executive cabinet just a few hours later at an emergency senate session.
Whyte said she told Dietz and Nunley that she still wanted to be ratified and serve in the position and could still work with DeSalvo but that she was unwilling to rescind her public statement.
“I felt the need to really reaffirm and tell them, ‘I just want to make sure that you know that if I’m not getting ratified tonight, that’s a choice,’” Whyte said. “‘That’s a decision that you are making. That’s not a decision that I’m (making).’”
Before the emergency session of the 54th senate convened, DeSalvo confirmed that the decision to wait on Whyte’s ratification had been made and explained some of the reasoning behind it.
“I welcome disagreement — I’ve always said that — … but there’s an understanding that there’s only one person that gives the entirety of the student perspective, and that’s the person that’s elected by students,” DeSalvo said.
He further explained that he does not believe it is his job to publicly “pick a side” because he feels it does a disservice to the communities on campus that such a statement might alienate.
“It doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in human rights and the rights of the Palestinian people to have dignity and respect and their homeland,” DeSalvo said. “But when you question my character publicly without consulting me privately about that disagreement, that’s not OK.”
The decision to postpone Whyte’s ratification was reached after careful consideration of whether those involved were in the position to have a fair conversation about the situation, Nunley said.
“What this does is give everybody the time, space and ability to make the correct decision not based on emotions or current feelings and (the) height of things,” Nunley said. “There are conversations that need to be had. I just think that the prerequisite to those conversations is time, specifically intentional time for people to process.”
Nunley said the move had nothing to do with Whyte’s capabilities when it comes to the role, and he believes she is an “amazing candidate.”
Before the ratification process began, Dietz spoke to the senate body about the decision.
“We felt that that ratification would be emotion-fueled on all party sides and that there are some concerns currently with that candidate’s actions as it pertains to the ASCSU Code of Ethics,” Dietz said. “I would like to make it clear that this is not a retaliatory move.”
While it was the intention of the office of the president to postpone Whyte’s ratification during senate, the move was blocked by the senate body as the ratification of the director of basic needs was already on the agenda, and in order to remove it, a motion to do so must be voted on by the senate.
The motion to remove the ratification was put forward and received a vote, but it was rejected by way of a majority vote, and Whyte’s ratification was allowed to proceed. After answering questions put forth by various senators, Whyte was ratified as the next director of basic needs by the 54th senate.
In a statement after the close of the session, Trout expressed disappointment with the attempted postponement of Whyte’s ratification.
“It’s interesting that the DeSalvo-Dietz campaign claim to be advocates of democracy, and yet when a member of their cabinet goes against them, they are thrown to the side,” Trout said. “The attempt by this new administration is a concerning attempt to silence dissent, and I urge Nick and Braxton to really reflect before consequences of their actions come knocking.”
Throughout the events of the session, Whyte maintained that the decision from the office of the president to postpone her ratification had not been her choice.
“If I have to lose this job to stand up for human rights, that’s what it is,” Whyte said. “If that’s what they’re going to do to me, that’s a decision that they are making.”
Reach Hannah Parcells at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @hannahparcells.