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To some, it represents a region, an era or a heritage.
But to others, it symbolizes an attitude.
To Brandon Allen, the Confederate flag is more than just a piece of cloth.
Allen, an Undergraduate Student Government senator representing Brush Towers, has written a USG resolution calling for the university to ban non-faculty employees from wearing clothing that depicts the flag.
For Allen, a freshman from Edwardsville studying journalism, the next course of action was clear. He wrote a resolution and plans to submit it at the next USG meeting tonight.
Allen said the resolution would only pertain to university staff, not faculty or students. Faculty refers to all university instructors and administrators.
Allen said he was offended when he noticed maintenance workers in a university vehicle wearing shirts and bandanas emblazoned with the flag.
He said he talked to other students and discovered many were upset after witnessing similar occurrences. Allen said he and other students viewed the flag as a symbol of hate, racism and white supremacy.
A resolution must be approved by more than half of the senators to pass.
If it passes, the organization's president, Demetrous White, has 48 hours to sign or veto the resolution.
White said university administrators, including Chancellor Fernando Treviño and SIU President Glenn Poshard, would receive a copy of the resolution, which he will sign if it passes.
He said he expects the senators to approve the resolution but anticipates a heated debate.
Allen said he felt confident a majority of the student body would stand behind the measure.
"I want somebody to step up and debate me about this because I'm ready to go," Allen said.
He said he and White spoke to SIUC Legal Counsel to determine whether the university would violate First Amendment rights if it prohibited employees from wearing images of the flag.
Paul McGreal, a professor of law who teaches classes on the First Amendment, said the university could probably enforce the clothing restriction because the government has a constitutionally protected interest in regulating what employees say in certain circumstances.
The university could argue employees wearing the flag present a negative image of the institution and upset others in the workforce, thus prohibiting the employees from performing their jobs, McGreal said.
However, McGreal said a similar restriction would be difficult to impose on faculty and almost impossible to impose on students.
"The whole problem with this is that it's a professional setting," Allen said. "You're on the job, being paid by the students, and wearing something the students feel offended by."
White said he supported the resolution on a personal level as well as a presidential one.
He said the measure would help ensure students of all cultures felt comfortable at the university.
"We've come so far from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to where we have a Caucasian student writing a resolution like this," White said. "We have not arrived where we need to be as a society but we're getting closer and I think this resolution is a step in the right direction."
Allison Petty can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 259 or allison.petty@siude.com.
