American flag making a comeback at UC Davis senate meetings?

The American flag may again be mandatory at UC Davis Student Senate meetings.

On Thursday, Student Senate President Josh Dalavai vetoed a controversial April 13 resolution that made flying the American flag optional at meetings.

The Student Senate of the Associated Students, University of California, Davis will meet at 6:10 p.m. Thursday in the George L. Mee Room of the Memorial Union to vote on whether members support the veto, Dalavai said.

There isn’t likely to be any opposition or discussion. “I spoke to members of the Senate about this and both sides were in agreement about the veto and the reason for it,” Dalavai said.

The veto came after conservative blogs denounced the Student Senate for the resolution, which they say “banned,” “banished” or “dropped” the flag. The controversy also generated a lot of negative emails to the Student Senate and a few threats.

It also prompted numerous offers of flag donations from fraternities and veterans organizations. Dalavai confirmed that a flag was on display at Thursday’s meeting.

But Dalavai said the controversy had nothing to do with his veto, which he said would just be temporary.

“I’m going to urge them to overturn it,” he said of the Senate.

In its place Dalavai will propose an amended bill that would give any senator the right to ask for the American flag to be present at any meeting.

The vetoed resolution approved earlier this month required that the senate pro tem sign off on such a request.

“I thought it was a disservice to have such a convoluted process,” Dalavai said.

 

Sign up

Our Capitol Alert newsletter has updates on what’s new at California’s Capitol. Sign up here.

This story was originally published April 24, 2017 at 2:28 PM with the headline "American flag making a comeback at UC Davis senate meetings?."