By Alana Hu, Staff Writer
Eighteen members of Union University’s Student Government Association received the “Best House Delegation” award last month at a meeting of college student officials.
The students attended the 43rd General Assembly of the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature Nov. 15 in Nashville.
The annual legislative session is conducted by college students from across Tennessee, provides students with an education about the state’s government and allows them to express their opinions on state issues.
Roles are filled in legislative, judicial and executive branches. Seats in the Senate and House of Representatives also are filled by students from various schools statewide.
Brooks Brasfield, junior social work major, attended for the first time this year and saw his bill (TISL Bill 84) pass in both houses.
The bill requires new students to all Tennessee colleges to get a meningitis vaccine. It was signed by the TISL governor, Matthew Meinel, a senior at Vanderbilt University.
Brasfield created the bill after a friend, Jacob Nunley, from his hometown of Newbern, died this semester after contracting meningitis. Nunley attended Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
“[His death] could have been prevented had he taken the vaccine,” Brasfield said. “A few friends from my hometown were [also] at TISL and helped me fight to have this bill that I brought with me to get it passed.”
Each year, the 10 “best” bills are selected by the legislature’s Executive Council and are sent to the General Assembly for consideration as real bills.
“TISL is significant because it gives college students the opportunity to become active in state government,” said Kirby Lewis, senior political science student and chief justice of the TISL Supreme Court. “We are able to see all of the processes that go into state legislation, elections and the judicial system and get a firsthand view by sitting in the seats ourselves and doing the work.”
Lewis said Union’s SGA has a long history with TISL.
“We were actually one of the main colleges that brought TISL back after it collapsed a few years ago,” Lewis said.
During the forum, students participated in committee times, legislative sessions, joint sessions and court cases and heard special speakers. Most of the time was spent presenting bills before the legislative house and senate, while lawyers were competing in the court challenge. Also during this time, people were also nominated to run for office.
“TISL is a wonderful opportunity to apply a Christian worldview in the context [of] politics, especially in a room full of differing opinions,” said Holly Harris, junior teaching English as a second language major. “You hold your breath when someone approaches the microphone because you don’t know if they are going to support you or do the complete opposite.”
Some of the bills proposed in which a Christian worldview was challenged were based on abortion, homosexual marriage rights and taking out the “moment of silence” in schools, Harris said.
Union also has a unique position, Lewis said, because “a lot of colleges look up to us, as we are able to share our values and express the things that are important to us.”
