Lauder Fellow Saul Hakim Helps Pass Five Resolutions in His Student Government to Help Jewish Students at Binghamton University

Current Lauder Fellow, Saul Hakim, presented six resolutions to his student government with five of them passing with the objective of making life on campus safer for Jewish students.

At the beginning of the student government meeting, motions were presented. The first motion Saul presented was to amend a resolution set in place in 2021 that would recognize the right of Jewish self-determination and classify any attempts to undermine that right as antisemitic, including BDS. This passed. The second motion presented was to rescind the BDS resolution that had been passed in April 2024. This also passed.

After the motions, Saul introduced different legislation. The first piece of legislation Saul presented that was passed allows for student groups to have 50 percent of privately incurred security costs for on-campus events subsidized from the Financial Committee's discretionary fund. This legislation passed. 

The second piece of legislation presented was titled "Commemoration of the October 7th Hamas Terrorist Attacks in Israel and Condemnation of Hamas." This legislation condemns Hamas as a terrorist organization and recognizes October 7th as a day of remembrance and calls for the student government to work with student organizations to promote related programming. This legislation passed.

The third resolution Saul presented advocated for the prohibition of "hoods, masks, and other facial coverings to conceal identity during lawful and unlawful assemblies or riots," with the exception for medical or religious cases. This resolution echoes a bill in the New York State Legislature. The resolution called for related changes in the SUNY and Binghamton University Codes of Conduct with the intention of "reinforcing the importance of public safety, accountability, and transparency in public assemblies." There was a lot of discourse on this resolution and Saul presented an amendment that would condemn doxxing and harassment. The amendment was withdrawn and the resolution passed.

The fourth resolution proposed was to restrict co-sponsors for the student legislation to only student groups. This resolution was tabled for the next meeting.

The fifth resolution condemned the rhetoric of community groups Binghamton Solidarity for Palestine and SUNY BDS. It prohibited the organizations from petitioning for recognition or to become an official student group and prevented recognized student groups from collaborating with them. This resolution also passed.

You can read more about the resolutions and about the student government meeting below.