Undergraduate Student Senate voted to take a stand on the situation in Darfur, Sudan at its public meeting yesterday.

Preston Mitchum, senator for academic affairs, presented a resolution at last week’s meeting prompting USS to take a position on the conflict in Sudan. The resolution was passed in a 7-0-1 vote.

Mitchum said the idea to write the resolution stemmed from Faculty Senate’s similar decision. He said the idea came about in a conversation with George Garrison, professor of Pan-African Studies.

“I asked, ‘What do you think USS can do?'” Mitchum said.

Because the resolution passed, Mitchum said USS will send letters to the Ohio Congressional Delegation, as well as state representatives and possibly President Bush.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur since 2003, and more than 2.5 million people have fled to refugee camps, The New York Times reported last week.

“This in no way will stop the war,” Mitchum said. “It’s hopefully to educate students.”

Also at the meeting, the KSU Anime Society presented to the senate, hoping to appeal the Allocations Committee’s decision to deny its request for $1,000 to attend Ohayocon, an anime convention in Columbus.

Student organizations are allowed to appeal requests Allocations denies. The organization presents its appeal to USS, which decides if the request should be sent back to Allocations.

Allocations Committee members Donovan Hill and Carla Smith were present at the meeting and offered reasons why the request was denied.

“How do you feel that this is going to benefit the student body?” Smith said. “We didn’t feel as a committee that this would benefit the entire student body. The educational value should outweigh the entertainment value.”

USS decided to deny the appeal in a 5-3 vote.

Contact student politics reporter Kali Price at [email protected].