Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate voted almost unanimously to disband the Tolerance and Equality Committee (TEC) last night.

Twenty-two senators voted in favor of a resolution permanently dissolving the TEC, while two abstained.

Town Sens. Chris Brown and Manish Vaidya, the two main creators of the TEC, cosponsored the legislation dissolving it.

Brown said he decided to propose the dissolution of the TEC because its original purpose was altered after several amendments were made to the committee at the Senate meeting during which it was approved. At that time 17 senators voted in its favor.

The initial purpose of the TEC was to research and understand how constituents are affected by acts of hate, Brown said.

One of the amendments made to the original TEC legislation removed a section that said, "The TEC committee shall reprimand the administration and Pennsylvania State Student Organizations who have committed an act of hate."

Vaidya had argued against striking the section, saying that doing so was enough to kill the resolution creating the TEC.

The TEC's revised guidelines stated its purpose was to assess the "efficiency and effectiveness" of the Penn State administration and student groups who might have been accused of committing acts of hate.

Penn State Young Americans for Freedom distributed fliers last week saying the TEC violated students' First Amendment rights because its definition of an act of hate was broad enough to encompass protected hate speech.

Jason Covener (senior-international politics), a former USG senator, filed suit against Senate President Bridget Van Osten in USG Supreme Court on Thursday on the grounds that the TEC's formation was a violation of the U.S. and USG Constitutions.

"If it goes to court," Covener said while addressing Senate last night during open student forum, "you're all going to lose because you don't have a case."

Town Sen. Sean Miller, Legislative and Appropriations Review Committee (LARC) chair, motioned to hold the committee break before legislation was brought before Senate last night. By holding the break, LARC, which must review all legislation before it is brought before Senate, was able to approve the resolution so that Senate could vote on it.

Miller later said he would never hold LARC meetings during committee break at Senate meetings again. Senators have an entire week to propose legislation, and it should be drafted ahead of time in order to give students an opportunity to review the legislation before Senate votes on it, he added.

Covener said Senate disbanded the TEC because its members knew they would lose to him during a USG Supreme Court trial.

"It would have been fun to beat them in court," he said.

Brown said he was thankful for the dialogue between students and Senate regarding the TEC and commended students for checking up on them.

Although TEC is dissolved, the majority of senators still support the ideas behind it, Brown said. USG will continue to research acts of hate occurring at Penn State through its executive branch, he added.