4 Ways to Support MLSA & Affinity Groups NOW

[Cardozo NLG]

Dear Cardozo NLG, 

As you may know (from our recent emails on the subject, or discussion at today's meeting), we stand strongly in support of MLSA and all affinity organizations here at Cardozo (including, but certainly not limited to, BLSA, LALSA, MSA, and OUTlaw) in light of a bill currently before the Student Bar Association (attached below). Rather than reinvent the wheel in explaining the situation, we have copied MLSA's accurate and thorough description at the end of this email. 

The leaders of LALSA have generously sent us the following list of four urgent action items to demonstrate our opposition to the proposed bill in support of our friends and classmates in MLSA, BLSA, LALSA, MSA, Outlaw, and every affinity group on campus. We urge you all to make your voices heard to the fullest extent possible. As always, please feel free to reach out to us with any questions. 

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Action Items from LALSA: 

In preparation for tomorrow's SBA meeting at 7:30pm at Room 424, we ask for your support for MLSA and all the other affinity groups by:  

(1) Signing the Petition to block SBA Bill 3-17 (please include your name AND class year)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfNtuZ4H-lyyL-537LN7qrhJOy8utyHUktO78NAULHxFQM9Hw/viewform?usp=sf_link

(2) Email your SBA senators and urge them to vote NO on SBA Bill 3-17

Top reasons why we reject this: No precedent to do this; not in the SBA's constitution; they have no authority to control a student group, including amending the group's constitution; it's discriminatory to target one group for control/oversight and no other group, etc.

(3) Making "Say NO to Bill 3-17" posters, tonight from 7 p.m. onward, in Room 1101 

If anyone would like to relieve stress and get creative, please feel free to join LALSA folks in making posters!

(4) Attending the SBA Meeting tomorrow at Room 424 at 7:30pm! 

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Message from MLSA: 

Dear all,

It has come to our attention today that an SBA Senator has put forth a proposal that would effectively dismantle and defund all affinity groups (a term not defined) and subsume them under MLSA. This is apparently supposed to be an attack on MLSA, but in actuality it would hurt affinity groups the most, while consolidating power under MLSA. Apparently, a 2.0 "less-offensive" version of this proposal was issued today as well. We vehemently reject the SBA mansplaining to MLSA, the affinity groups, or any student group how they should be running their organizations. 

Since this Senator nor the SBA have directly communicated with us, you, or any of the affinity groups with regard to the proposals, we are attaching the "bills" to this email. The SBA Senator who proposed the bill has never reached out to MLSA regarding his proposals.

This haphazard proposal was conceived with absolutely ZERO factual investigation and ZERO input from any of the groups affected. As far as we are concerned, it lacks a rational basis.

Moreover, we fail to see what part of the SBA Constitution gives the SBA the power to unilaterally dismantle student groups that are otherwise in good standing, or tell student groups how they must organize. We believe that how we organize and work together are part and parcel of our sacred freedom of speech, currently under attack by our SBA Senator colleague.  

Let it be known: This proposal would frustrate our mission and our ability to effectuate our organizational goals. The Minority Law Student Alliance is not an overseer of affinity groups, nor do we regulate affinity groups, determine their budgets or otherwise wield any power over them. We are not a mini-SBA. In fact, MLSA exists to support the affinity groups in their diverse missions. We support every affinity group that wants to work with us and they support us. MLSA creates spaces to help foster collaboration and solidarity across difference. This is core to our mission - solidarity. We set aside a chunk of our budget to cosponsor events; there is no 'approval process' for affinity groups' events. Accordingly, we do not allocate money to affinity groups - we cosponsor their events, events that would happen with or without MLSA. It feels silly even having to explain that.

This is what our constitution says:

MLSA’s purpose is to:

• a. act as an unified body in communications with the Cardozo administration;
• b. to foster support of events, initiatives, and programs among the groups within MLSA through resource pooling and intellectual discourse;
• c. further its members’ academic enrichment and success;
• d. increase the Cardozo community’s awareness of general legal issues that affect minority students in the United States and abroad;
• e. collectively engage in community service events and promote minority student recruitment; and
• f. ensure that graduates and current members remain connected through the BALLSA (Black, Asian, and Latino Law Student Association) alumni network and annual alumni reception.

Article 2: Membership

1. MLSA is comprised of, but not limited to, the following sovereign groups:

• a. Asian Pacific American Law Student Association (“APALSA”);
• b. Black Law Student Association (“BLSA”);
• c. Korean American Law Student Association (“KALSA”);
• d. Latino American Law Student Association (“LALSA”);
• e. OUTlaw; and
• f. South Asian Law Student Association (SALSA).

We have also attached it to this email.

Despite many law students' obsession with hierarchy, MLSA does not replicate this power scheme in any of our operations. We do not preside over the affinity groups, and never will. In fact, the three of us run MLSA horizontally, by only making decisions and working together collectively. Not everyone has to agree with how we run, but it is our prerogative to run how we do. We make it our jobs to promote inclusivity for every affinity group and any minority student who feels marginalized. We may not be perfect, but we never lose sight of that crucial part of our mission. Every single affinity group - even those that are implicitly not part of this proposal - has an independent existence from MLSA, and has a special place at Cardozo. Indeed, almost all the affinity groups have been in existence before MLSA. Affinity groups are an incredibly important part of the law school experience for generations of lawyers of color, LGBTQ lawyers, and lawyers of other minority groups. Affinity groups exist at virtually every other law school in the country and have city-wide, and nation-wide affiliations. Perhaps this is something the over-zealous SBA Senator has not realized. 

Trust: This is not about the three of us. It never was. We are all graduating this semester. This is about future generations of minority students having a structure to organize and practice solidarity. Generations before us fought for their right to exist and organize in law schools. Right now, we are working alongside the affinity group leaders in mobilizing support against the proposal and we will do everything in our power to stop this ill-conceived plan.

Please join us in the fight. We need your support.

If you believe in our inherent freedom to organize without undue and discriminatory restrictions, if you believe in the importance of creating safe spaces for students of color, LGBTQ students and other minority students, and if you believe that the SBA has no business telling student organizations how they should run, then please join us in opposition to this ignorant, insulting proposal during the next SBA meeting on Tuesday March 21 at 7pm.

Thank you. 

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Cardozo National Lawyers Guild
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CardozoNLG
Website: www.sites.google.com/site/cardozonlg 
Email: cardo...@gmail.com

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