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The University of Wisconsin student government met Wednesday night to endorse a national LGBT event slated for April and to approve the funding of a Greek organization’s weeklong celebration to promote diversity.

The Associated Students of Madison voted to endorse the “Day of Silence” event, hosted by the LGBT Campus Center and other campus organizations, to recognize the high number of deaths this year caused by targeted bullying.

Members said the event, slated for April 25, said they would support and help with the promotion effort for the event because of the potential for a lasting positive impact on the UW campus.

Student Council Representative Ace Hilliard said this year’s “Day of Silence” would likely be the most successful event of its kind to date.

Hilliard said there are plans for other LGBT students and constituents from 10 different parts of the state, as well as other UW System schools, to come to campus to participate in the day’s events.

She added Wisconsin aims to have the highest turnout for the “Day of Silence” event in the country.

Representative Jasmine Savoy said she was eager to see council members not only support this event through ASM, but also in their personal actions as well.

“Everyone needs to show support individually, don’t just say you support it now and then not support it the day of the event,” Savoy said. “We should be student leaders and lead by example, we need to show our solidarity with this day.”

The Student Council also voted to approve the funding of a portion of Lambda Theta Phi Fraternity’s Founder’s Week events, slated to be held March 27 through April 2 throughout campus.

Finance Committee Chair Matt Beemsterboer said the fraternity only requested funding for three of their events for the week, including two independent movie screenings and a women’s relaxation and fitness day.

He added he thought the funding was a reasonable request and the success of the events would be critical for the group’s theme of the week.
Representative Tito Diaz, a member of the fraternity, said the directors of films would be in attendance for the movie screenings to add a unique touch to the events.

Diaz said the directors’ presence at the screenings will also provide a much richer cultural experience for the fraternity and members of the campus community in attendance.

Katy Ziebell, Student Activity Center Governing Board chair, also introduced a new piece of legislation to alter the composition of the center’s governing body.

Currently, the board consists of 16 members. Ziebell said this number of people is not necessary to ensure the SAC runs efficiently.

She proposed reducing the number of seats on the SAC governing board to six members, with the group being composed of one student council representative, one Student Services Finance Committee representative, one StudentPrint representative, one SAC front desk representative and two elected representatives from the student body.

Ziebell added the new board could be considered more of a small working group, which would further promote the idea of a more concise and efficient governing body for the center.