LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas University students proposing a Multicultural Student Government separate from the Student Senate were “hurt” when university chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little nixed the plan.

Gray-Little, who is black, vetoed a proposed $2 fee on students to fund a Multicultural Student Government on campus Wednesday, shortly before the students organizing the group planned to hold a meeting announcing their idea, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.

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Gray-Little explained in an email sent to the Student Senate that “the separate multicultural government for which the fee was created does not exist, nor will the separate government be developed for 2016-17, the year for which the fee is intended,” so she will not recommend the proposal to the school’s board of regents.

The chancellor wrote that the university’s code prevents “multiple independent groups representing a constituent group … within University Senate” and even if it didn’t, she thinks “the independent student government proposed … is not an optimal way to achieve the goals we have for diversity and inclusion at the university and, indeed, may lead to greater divisiveness,” according to the news site.

The vetoed proposal comes after the Student Senate approved the mandatory $2 fee March 9 that was expected to generate about $90,000 for the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Student organizers of the Multicultural Student Government planned to give $6,000 stipends to each of its executive staff, which accounted for about half of the money, and spend the rest on programs, ads and other costs, the Journal-World reports.

Gray-Little’s decision to reject the mandatory $2 fee “leaves in doubt the future of a group that some student-affairs experts have said would be the first independent, minority-based student government in the country,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

“This hurts, because we are the marginalized students who know there is a need for this resource,” said Trinity Carpenter, interim MSG secretary. “It’s even harder to accept because they have admitted there is a need for this institution and are not supporting it.”

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The Multicultural Student Government stemmed from a list of 15 demands made last fall by Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk, “a multicultural coalition of students who bear testimony and witness to the marginalization of students on this campus,” according to The University Daily Kansan student news site.

Other demands included “inclusion and belonging” training for everyone on campus, hiring more minority staff, recruiting more minority students, multicultural counselors to address mental illness for minority students, a ban on concealed weapons, and an investigation into the death of a black student in 1970.

Carpenter told the Journal-World that Gray-Little’s decision to reject the mandatory student fee will not derail plans to move forward with a MSG to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with the Student Senate.

Discussions with University Senate leaders convinced Carpenter the school code can be changed to allow for the MSG, she said, adding that the group will continue to look for a funding source.