By Emily Duncan, Staff Writer
Abbie Vestal, English freshman, listens as names of teens that have committed suicide due to bullying for being gay are read at the Anti-Bully Candlelight Vigil on Oct. 13 on the Quad Lawn. SPECTRUM, the university's LGBT organization, hosted the event. Photo: Brook Yancey/ The Campus
Student Government Association is encouraging OCU students, faculty and staff to take a stance against bullying.
“OCU against Bullying” was the second resolution of the semester and was brought to the floor of Senate tonight. The Student Senates’ Student Services Committee gave the resolution a recommendation of due pass Nov. 23.
Sen. Caleb Howard, (freshman-at-large), is one of authors of the resolution. Howard said he was approached by Sen. David Scott, (business), and SGA President John Riesenberg to write a resolution to publicly address bullying on campus because of its prevalence in the media.
“I had a similar idea to do something like this, so when I was approached with the idea I saw the opportunity to write my first piece of legislation as freshman senator,” Howard said. “I thought this resolution would be a great way to unite the student body against the horrible aspect of bullying.”
Howard didn’t write the resolution alone. Sen. Jacilyn Kennedy, (freshman-at-large), contributed.
“Bullying is a problem that needs to be looked at and prevented,” Kennedy said. “We wanted to take a serious look at this problem that seems to be increasing.”
The resolution will encourage the campus community to recognize the signs of and unite against any bullying behavior, Howard said.
“One of the ways to unite against bullying that the resolution discusses is for the campus community to report any instances of bullying to campus police,” Howard said. “Intentions to amend the bill to include OCU Counseling services is in the works too.”
Christopher Layton, music/theater sophomore, said he supports “OCU Against Bullying.”
“In my acting convocation meeting we discussed disrespect towards the stage hands during shows,” Layton said. “This is a form of bullying, so this resolution is easy to relate to any major or department.”
Lyndel Harris, chief of police, said anything the campus community can do to raise awareness about bullying is a good thing.
“Sometimes bullying can start out simple, but can turn into assault,” he said. “If we know about it we can stop the problem before it starts.”
Senators now will present the resolution to university officials. Officials will then decide if concepts presented in the resolution should be incorporated into official university policy.
