During Thursday’s legislative council, University of Colorado Student Government executives passed the legislation they previously drafted to remove the infamous 4/20 event from occurring on campus.
The decision comes after an open forum held on Wednesday to discuss the issue. CUSG Vice President of External Affairs Brooks Kanski said he was pleased with the turnout and the amount of communication between students and the student government.
“Even after the forum was over, we received a lot of emails and positive feedback,” Kanski said.
A haze of marijuana smoke sits upon Norlin Quad as a 4/20 crowd enjoys themselves at 4:20pm in 2011. CUSG voted Thurday to remove the 4/20 gathering from campus. (CU Independent File/Robert R. Denton)
The development of the legislation began this past spring, when a survey about 4/20 was distributed to students via email. Approximately 3,400 undergraduates responded, with the majority expressing concern that the event defined the university’s reputation.
“When you search ‘CU’ on Youtube, the first couple of pages almost exclusively are videos of this,” said Carly Robinson, vice president of internal affairs.
Consistent complaints of difficulties related to the crowd on Norlin Quad — getting to class, traffic and noise — further indicated to CUSG that something needed to be done.
While the specific language of the legislation has not been revealed, it will aim to remove the thousands of people from CU’s campus. This will be no easy feat, which is why Wednesday’s forum took place; Kanski said that CUSG’s goal was to present their reasoning to students and explain the extensive problems that the event causes.
Ultimately, Robinson said that students will see the benefits of passing this legislation.
“It comes down to asking an important question,” Robinson said. “Is this how we want our university to be perceived?”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Annie Melton at anne.melton@colorado.edu.
