Student Senate voted unanimously in favor of approving the joint resolution condemning the propagation of white supremacy disinformation Wednesday evening.

Seth Yeakel, speaker of Student Senate and senior mathematics major, said that he is hoping this resolution gives a unifying voice for the university. 

“We took all the students’ feedback and tried to make one voice, and with this we can try to make a structured plan on how to increase engagement in diversity activities and (registered student organizations),” Yeakel said. 

He said the senate’s plan is to create a meeting with the staff, student, faculty senates and try to get a forum in progress to have people ask questions so that they can answer them or they can give feedback on what they want.

Yeakel said the Senates are looking to reach out to RSOs to help the situation such as Black Student Union and Latin American Student Organization.

“We want to go to meetings, we want to engage with them, we want to have fun. We don’t want just to go there as a Senator we want to go there as a member hopefully or maybe go there every once in a while, every other week,” Yeakel said. “We want to engage with them on a student-to-student level more than a senator to student level.”

Yeakel said the senate is trying to target the groups most affected by the recent events that have taken place over the last few weeks.

He said he feels that a weight has been lifted off of his shoulders now that the resolution has been approved because it has brought a lot of people’s voice to the table.

“At the moment, this is a piece of paper, but we hope this is a piece that starts us going the right direction for an action,” Yeakel said.

Yeakel said he stands with the resolution’s point of view because the situation is horrible. 

“I condemn any such action that will cause harm or cause fear or affect the quality life of students because this can be anything from hate speech to actual protest,” Yeakel said. “I definitely condemn white supremacist actions.”

Executive Vice President Kathleen Conlin said the Student Senate has been using social media and word of mouth the most to reach out to the students to inform them to register to vote. 

She is also is in the process of reaching out to 15 student leaders on campus to make a video explaining to the students of how important it is to register to vote.

Conlin said a few of the student leaders are involved with Black Student Union, Latin American Student Organization, Interfraternity Council, Student Government, athletics and other organizations.

Jelan Buchanan can be reached at 581-2812 or at jjbuchanan@eiu.edu.