Update: Article has been updated to include a statement from the University of Houston.
After posting her status of “Forget #BlackLivesMatter; more like #AllLivesMatter” after the Dallas police shooting earlier this month, the University of Houston student body has decided to punish Rohini Sethi, their vice president.
In order to avoid being impeached, Sethi must attend a three day Libra Project diversity workshop in August, is suspended from 50 days beginning Monday, attend three cultural events a month, and write a reflection letter and present herself to the student senate on September 28, Campus Reform reported.
Following the post, which Sethi apologized for but still emphasized that all lives matter, Student Body President Shane Smith issued a statement. “I know that open and respectful discussion leads to positive results and that violence does not. So let’s focus on the facts and all help to create peaceful change. We can’t keep ignoring the problem that could tear us apart. We must do something–and we must do it together.”
That doing something “together” amounted to a majority of the student body, at 13-2 with one abstention, allowing for Shane to sanction Sethi.
A working draft of the bill on Sethi’s suspension said it could end if she offered a “detailed plan on inclusion.”
The Libra Project, which has a $20 fee, will touch upon various issues including “Black Lives Matter versus All Lives Matter.”
Smith defended his actions as being in line with the First Amendment:
Jeannie Kever, of Marketing & Communications at the university, spoke to Red Alert Politics about the incident and also referenced the First Amendment in a statement from the university:
According to The Daily Cougar, a Senate resolution would have the body voting to impeach Sethi if she did not complete the workshop to satisfaction. Smith disagreed and instead suggested a bill that would give him the power to suspend Sethi and determine the sanctions, as was eventually passed.
Undergraduate Senator Paul O’Brien objected to the passed resolution for the presidential abuse of power. “We just gave him the one-time power to fire the only people in that office that could tell him no, which could last a day or the entire administration,” said O’Brien. “(The Senate has) power, and we just got undermined.”
