MSA tables motion on Code wording By Lisa Koivu Daily Staff Reporter Michigan Student Assembly members deliberated for 45 minutes over one sentence in the University's Code of Student Conduct at the assembly's meeting last night in the Michigan Union. On the agenda for last night's meeting was an amendment change to the Student Code of Conduct proposed by LSA Rep. Abe Rafi. But Student General Counsel Josh Trapani provided another set of amendments, causing the proposal to be tabled until next week when the discussion will continue. "I wanted to hit on several key areas of the Code of Conduct that are problematic and make amendments that are a compromise between the rights of the students and the safety of the campus community," Trapani said. Before the amendments to the code were postponed, assembly members voted to leave the last sentence of the introductory paragraph intact. This sentence reads: "Essential values which undergird this purpose include civility, dignity, diversity, education, equality, freedom, honesty, and safety." Rafi, chair of the Students Rights Commission, deleted this sentence in his set of amendments, saying, "We don't need this document to tell us what our values are." But Trapani said it is important to leave those values in the document. "It is important to stress people's liberty. If we lead this avenue too wide open, it serves no one," Trapani said. MSA President Bram Elias said it is a good thing the proposal was delayed until next week. "The biggest problem is that the student code is so archaic and complex and students aren't knowledgeable about their rights. If the students aren't knowledgeable, the administration can do what they want. MSA has the task to fix this problem," Elias said. Elias and MSA Vice President Andy Coulouris expressed their concern at the lack of MSA representatives in attendance at yesterday's Winterfest in the Union. Winterfest is the annual showcase of campus organizations and activities for prospective group members. Coulouris said the event wasn't executed as well as it should have been. "We have a committee designed to promote MSA on campus and there are two key events for us to reach out to students - Festifall and Winterfest. We have missed two key events to get students interested in who we are," Coulouris said. Elias said that although MSA has done many good things this year, University students are not aware of the assembly's activities. "If we aren't working to meet students we won't get new people involved. We need to work harder to get students turned on to MSA," Elias said. Elias said a new goal is for each MSA committee to recruit one new person by March. A resolution addressing the decline in underrepresented minority enrollment was postponed for two weeks. The assembly passed a motion to disburse $550 from the Committee Discretionary Fund to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Commission. The money will be used to fund a new LGBT literary magazine "G-Spot," which will debut during Queer Visibility Week in February. The assembly also voted to allocate $500 from the Committee Discretionary Fund to the Minority Affairs Commission to reimburse the group for supplies bought for the Martin Luther King Jr. march and rally held Monday as part of the University's Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Symposium. Originally on page 3A in the 1-19-2000 issue of the Daily.