The undergraduate Student Association Senate’s stance on the future closure of a queer community space drew tensions between the two candidates for the Senate’s advocacy committee chairperson position during a committee meeting last Wednesday evening.
As the university slowly discontinues the assignment of student spaces to clubs for exclusive use — with SU 373’s closure set for Dec. 19 — the LGBTA club that runs it is fighting to keep the space available and to reverse the policies for student-run spaces overall.
The advocacy committee chairperson election came right after the Senate unanimously passed a resolution to call upon the university to review and potentially revise those policies.
SA Senator Grant Peterson had criticized SA Vice President for Advocacy Mason Bayer’s public “radio silence” on the clash.
“I think SA needs leadership that can actually demonstrate that you can do advocacy, and I don’t think there were any public statements from the VP of Advocacy about the room 373 issue or club spaces.” Peterson said.
Two weeks prior, on Nov. 12, the club’s e-board members asked senators to publicly support the LGBTA club — resulting in either criticism or silence.
During the committee elections, Bayer said that while he didn’t make a public statement, he has been in communication with club members.
“We were going to the room constantly,” Bayer said. “We were in a mediation downstairs with the new community center [UB’s LGBTA center] to try to get them to compromise.”
Lorien Samarra told The Spectrum that every interaction they’ve had with the SA advocacy department under Bayer’s leadership has been “useless.”
“All they have been interested in discussing was how we are going to transition into the UB staff-run LGBTQ+ center,” Samarra wrote in a text message.
SA Senator Sierra Fernandez asked Peterson whether or not the SA Senate should have backed SU 373 by name two times; both of which Peterson refused to answer during the meeting, calling her question a “bad-faith” question.
Peterson told The Spectrum that he is personally against the closure but is also obligated to be a neutral arbiter as a member of the Senate.
“My resolution addresses the fundamental issues at hand,” Peterson wrote in a text message, referring to the document that the Senate passed unanimously in favor of student-run spaces which he authored.
All senators except for Peterson voted for Bayer as committee chair, which Peterson told The Spectrum that he can’t understand how Bayer’s lack of a position on room closures did not impact the vote.
“I am about as disappointed now with the SA Senate,” Peterson wrote a text message to The Spectrum. “I feel that some of the votes cast are without rhyme, reason or consistency.”
Bayer did not respond to The Spectrum’s request for comment by time of publication.
Mylien Lai contributed to the reporting of this article.
The news desk can be reached at news@ubspectrum.com
