One sentence in particular of the UCI administration’s distancing of itself from the flag ban should be kept in mind with respect to future actions by university student governments.
The first part of the sentence, suggesting that the student government’s representative government “does not represent the opinions of the nearly 30,000 students on this campus,” is actually problematic, but the second part, “and have no influence on the policies and practices of the university” is significant.
The UCI administration’s public acknowledgement that the student government’s votes do not control the university’s policies and practices is something that should be kept in mind every time a university’s student government has a vote on “divesting” from Israel.
A final note: the ASUCI legislation had a final “Resolution” clause. This one stated that for any other “decorative item” about which “issues arise,” the solution will be to “remove the item if there is considerable request to do so.” The veto, mercifully, removed that undemocratic clause, as there was “considerable request to do so.”
