Student Government Association votes against Kevin Hart visit

The Student Government Association voted against bringing Kevin Hart to campus. The breakdown of the vote was 18 No’s, 2 Yes’s and 4 Abstains.

SGA’s Student Affairs Committee released a survey to the student body, which received 209 responses. 86.6% of respondents said they would be interested in Kevin Hart coming to campus. 72.7% of respondents also said they would approve of SGA using student dollars to pay for Hart’s visit. Hart’s asking price is $100,000. SGA voted against Hart’s visit.

“It’s a high ticket item that’s just difficult to justify,” Zubke said.

Later at the SGA meeting, Rose McLaughlin, a senior triple major in International Studies, Anthropology and History, spoke at the meeting to address the University’s lack of kosher and halal food. She presented a thorough report that included anonymous complaints from multiple students.

Erin Weightman, SGA Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, sponsored the bill.

“For me, it’s very important. I have a sister who’s vegan. My mom is gluten-free and dairy-free, so I can kind of understand how hard it is to not eat what you want,” Weightman said.

One of the concerns brought up at the meeting was how much money would be needed to satisfy these religious dietary needs. McLaughlin said the costs should not outweigh the concerns of students.

“With regards to getting it on campus, there’s always that old adage of how many students [affected by this issue] are on campus, and the bottom line [is] this affects a group of students,” McLaughlin said. “It’s an everyday sort of challenge that they face and it’s really hard for me to conceive of looking at those students and saying they don’t matter because there’s not enough of them.”

SGA voted to send the bill to the Student Affairs Committee and they will discuss it again at the next meeting.

Zubke was impressed with McLaughlin’s report.

“In my time at SGA, that was the most well-articulated and well-researched presentation we’ve gotten from any student so I really appreciated Rose’s efforts in that” Zubke said.

Zubke also appreciated how Rose brought up the issue to SGA.

“It’s really great to see that, some self-accountability on behalf of students, take initiatives for themselves and then come to us and ask for our help and our support in championing that project,” Zubke said.