Ohio State student government votes in favor of resolution to keep Columbus Day, introduce Indigenous Peoples’ Day on campus

Teresa Cardenas
Thu, 26 Oct 2017 01:54:44 +0000
Campus, Columbus Day, featured, Indigenous People's Day, ohio state

CGS President Alex Wesaw, a graduate student in city and regional planning and also a Native American, talks to the USG general assembly Wednesday night. Credit: Teresa Cardenas | Lantern reporter

Undergraduate Student Government general assembly voted 35-1 on Wednesday to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the second Monday of October, the same day as Columbus Day.

Originally, the proposed resolution called for Ohio State to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The change to adding the new holiday without replacing Columbus Day came after a heated debate about the political nature of the topic.

The proposed holiday would act as a day of celebration for indigenous people through awareness events about their cultures and contributions. The resolution is a suggestion that will be taken to administrators to officially add the holiday to the academic calendar.

USG and its graduate counterpart, the Council of Graduate Students — who introduced the idea to USG after it had passed its own resolution — will take the proposal to administrators to show that two student bodies of Ohio State support this addition. CGS has also reached out to its professional school equivalent, the Inter-Professional Council, to pass a similar resolution in November.

CGS President Alex Wesaw, a graduate student in city and regional planning who is a Native American, said he raised the idea in the hope that the student body will unify to bring awareness of unknown or forgotten cultures.

“The point of what we are asking is to help folks understand that there are still native folks in this country,” Wesaw said.

Wesaw will meet with administrators Thursday to discuss the matter.