WSG supports survivors, chancellor

Senators hope resolutions will help raise awareness

Killian Jauch, News Editor

Whitewater Student Government has unanimously passed two resolutions on an investigation involving former associate to the chancellor Alan Hill and his relationship with Chancellor Beverly Kopper. Senators Austin May and Ethan Hoeppner wrote and proposed both resolutions.

The original resolution was written strictly in support of the Office of the Chancellor, but some issues were brought up by other members. 

“The big problem people found with it was that we made an assumption that the student body was in support of her,” May said. “The other problem with that was that people didn’t think there was enough in there supporting survivors. So after that meeting, we made a survey.”

The survey received over 600 student responses, with an overwhelming majority stating they were in support of the chancellor.

May and Hoeppner also addressed another issue with the resolution by writing out an additional resolution to support survivors of sexual harassment or assault.

“We wrote the resolution out roughly, then got a few other people in to talk about it,” May said. “One really good idea was to include all the resources that [survivors] could reach out to in the actual resolution, so we added that.”

While the process may have been tedious at times, both senators stated that it was well worth it.

“It’s something we’re pretty passionate about it,” Hoeppner said. “The resolution concerning the chancellor took a lot of work, a lot of critiquing and a lot of people looking at it, but it came smoothly because we were passionate, as well as the supporting survivors one because we felt it was such a critical thing to do.”

Both resolutions passed unanimously, but the work isn’t done.

“In the resolution supporting survivors, the actual action of it is to get our public relations director and people in administration to get together and figure out a way to increase the awareness and visibility of those resources on campus,” said May.

While Chancellor Kopper has not seen the resolutions yet, they will be presented to her after WSG President Tom Kind signs them.

“We wanted the Chancellor to know that the students are in support of her,” May said. “And that we’re still backing her through the tough time that she’s going through.”