"The Associated Students of Walla Walla University (ASWWU) is—as it sounds—a student organization on campus.
ASWWU elects 20 ‘senators’ who have regular meetings to discuss ways to improve the University Campus. .....the current president of the Senate is Wils Haffner, and the president of ASWWU is Eric Welch.In January of 2020, the ASWWU senate met and debated issue S.R. 3 – Protection for LGBTQIA+ Persons at WWU. What is that? It is a ‘bill’ sponsored by Joshua Peinado and Hayden Sherill—calling for greater LGBTQ inclusivity at Walla Walla University.
These student representatives are calling for Walla Walla University to delete offensive language from the Student Handbook in two categories. The offensive language: referring to marriage as a union “between a man and a woman.”
Sexual identity statement
Affirmation of Seventh-day Adventist teachings
We are founded on Christian teachings and values as understood and appreciated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which teaches that sexual relationships are to be protected and celebrated in the context of a committed marriage between a man and a woman (Genesis 2:23-25). Walla Walla University supports this conviction through its policies and requires faculty, staff, and students to reflect this conviction in their behavior.Sexual Standards Policy
Walla Walla University, as a religious institution owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, formulates policies for students that reflect the conviction that marriage is “a lifelong union between a man and a woman” (from the “28 Fundamental Beliefs”). In keeping with this conviction, we expect students to refrain from premarital and extramarital sexual relationships. Only couples united in a legal marriage between a man and a woman will be acknowledged as married in the policies of the university.
The ASWWU student group requested—in S.R. 3—on January 18, 2020, that the University remove the words “between a man and a woman” and the reference to the Seventh-day Adventist 28 Fundamental beliefs.
To the University’s credit, they have not capitulated to the puerile demands of these students. The WWU Student Handbook still refers to marriage as a life-long union between a man and a woman. In this they are to be commended.