UW-Stevens Point student government leaders issued a statement Monday denouncing a move by United Council, the UW system-wide student government, to eliminate a UW-SP vote during the General Assembly meeting for failing to meet diversity credentials.

According to Bret Deutscher, a student representative of the Student Government Association at UW-SP, United Council violated both the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution as well as Wisconsin State Statute 36.09(5) when they removed a voting point from SGA during Saturday’s United Council meeting.

The United Council Appeals Committee removed the vote when UW-SP failed to bring a diverse delegation to the meeting, a necessity under the United Council Diversity Requirements.

The Diversity Requirements demand that all student government delegations bring a minimum of two women — one of which must be a student of color — one student of color, one LGBT student and one traditionally underrepresented student.

UW-SP said this move was illegal.

“United Council is clearly in violation not only of state law but the 14th Amendment as well,” SGA President Aaron Koepke said.

Wisconsin State Statute 36.09(5) states that “students of each institution or campus shall have the right to organize themselves in a manner they determine and to select their representatives to participate in institutional governance.”

SGA said its representatives are democratically elected.

“It wasn’t done intentionally,” Koepke said. “It’s just how the cards fell. We brought the delegation that was representative of the student body here.”

According to Matt Fargen, President of United Council, UW-SP could have easily maintained their vote by demonstrating they were working to improve the diversity of their delegation. Fargen said five other student government delegations at the meeting did not meet the diversity credentials.

These students appealed to the committee and provided oral evidence that they tried to bring a diversified delegation.

“Stevens Point’s votes weren’t taken away because they didn’t meet the diversity credentials,” Fargen said. “They were taken away because they didn’t give any evidence, oral or otherwise, [about why] they didn’t meet the credentials.”

The Diversity Credentials rule, Fargen said, has been in place for 20 years. UW-SP was the first organization to ever have a vote removed because of these guidelines.

Fargen said the move by UW-SP to not provide that evidence was a political one.

“It seemed to me that people were looking for an excuse to make a fight,” Fargen said. “Unless the student government really isn’t doing any outreach.”

SGA have unanimously agreed upon a bill that would scrap the punitive measures of the diversity credentials, Koepke said. This bill will go to the next United Council General Assembly meeting on Nov. 1.

“It’s inherently unfair,” Deutscher said. “It’s been pretty clear that quota-based systems are illegal, and I think United Council needs to address this.”

Both Deutscher and Koepke said they believe diversity is essential to the democratic process, but they said they disagree with how United Council has dealt with the issue.

“I think diversity is wonderful, and we need to continually strive for it,” Koepke said. “But to be punished for it and to go against state and national law? That, I think, is wrong.”

Advocates of the Diversity Credentials said the systems are not illegal, since United Council is a democratic organization and the credentials were democratically elected. They said UW-SP needs to try harder to meet those guidelines.

“It’s reflective of their lack of understanding,” UW-Madison Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Carl Camacho said. “We are in a political era in which societal problems need to come to a solution.”

ASM has always met United Council’s Diversity Credentials, Camacho said.

“We don’t go out and say ‘Hey, we need these people,'” Camacho said. “We meet the credentials because we understand why it’s important, and our leadership reflects that.”

As of Monday night, neither UW-SP nor United Council had taken specific action.