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This week in ASCSU: Amending blackface resolution

Laila Shekarchian, Staff Reporter

November 23, 2024

Collegian | Cait Mckinzie

Associated Students of Colorado State University Parliamentarian Madeleine Kamberg announces a recess at the second session of the 54th senate Aug. 22.

The Associated Students of Colorado State University convened Nov. 20 for the 15th session of the 54th senate.

To begin the session, the executive, legislative and judicial branches provided updates on their respective work, initiatives and upcoming events.

Moving into new business, senate introduced Resolution #5406, “Amending The Resolution Condemning Blackface To More Accurately Reflect The Media’s Involvement.”

The resolution aims to make a correction to Resolution #5404, “Formal Condemnation of BlackFace on Colorado State University’s Campus,” and remove clauses claiming that Rocky Mountain Student Media reported breaking news on an incident involving the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity earlier this semester without speaking to both parties and investigating the matter.

The fraternity was accused of displaying a racially insensitive banner Sept. 5, which was reported by a student and covered by various news teams within different student media departments.

The resolution initially stated, “Harm could have been mitigated but instead was amplified to harm more than the individuals who initially encountered the banner to harm hundreds if not thousands of students; and … Due to the unethical journalism exhibited by The Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation, every party heretofore mentioned was harmed.”

Rocky Mountain Student Media staff provided evidence to dispute the claims in the initial text of the resolution, confirming that the journalists involved in reporting on the allegations did so ethically and contacted the parties involved prior to reporting the breaking news. The evidence provided prompted the need to revise the original resolution to maintain accuracy and transparency in ASCSU’s legislative processes.

“We were presented with information that shows that this is factually incorrect for one and actually causes harm in and of itself because making the claim that Rocky Mountain Student Media did unethical journalism can harm them as an organization and their credibility,” Parliamentarian and author of the resolution Madeleine Kamberg said.

While there should be a conversation about the media’s involvement in the Lambda Chi incident, Kamberg said, the resolution is necessary because it will remove inaccurate information from the original legislation.

“Removing these three whereas clauses does not harm the integrity of what the resolution is intended to do and makes sure that we are doing our due diligence by all of the students that we represent, which includes students within Rocky Mountain Student Media,” Kamberg said.

Following Q&A, the legislation was sent to the Office of Diversity & Inclusion and internal affairs committees for further review.

ASCSU senate will resume Dec. 4.

Reach Laila Shekarchian at news@collegian.com or on social media @CSUCollegian.

About the Contributor

Cait Mckinzie, Photo Director

Cait Mckinzie is a second-year student double majoring in art and journalism and media communication. She is one of two photo directors for the 2024-25 school year. Despite growing up in Renton, Washington, Mckinzie knew she wanted to go to Colorado State University since middle school. She had only ever been to Colorado twice, but she visited campus once, and that was all it took. At first, there wasn’t much in Fort Collins that Mckinzie was familiar with. But in high school, she was the co-head of visuals for her school newspaper, so she applied to The Collegian as a photographer to get back into a similar environment. Mckinzie was first introduced to photography by her grandfather, who has been a photographer most of his life. After he gifted Mckinzie her first camera in her junior year of high school, she began to take any assignment she could for her high school paper to improve her skills. Of all the memories made in her first year at CSU, most of the interesting ones came from The Collegian. One Halloween drag show assignment, a lot of mentorship and a few months of practice later, Mckinzie found herself being offered the position of photo director for the next academic school year. Mckinzie is excited for another year at The Collegian and aims to continue learning and growing during her time as one of the photo directors.

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