Members of LSU will be able to revote at the next meeting on Nov. 2.
The vote to rename the Latino Student Union resulted in a stalemate Oct. 19.
The name change would replace Latino with Latinx, a more inclusive version of Latino. At the weekly meeting in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center, members voted to either keep the original name or transition to Latinx.
Following LSU's constitution, a quarter of its members must be present to be able to vote. Nineteen of 25 members attended Wednesday's meeting and recorded their votes on paper. The votes were then counted by LSU officials.
To be able to make a change, a majority must outnumber a minority by two votes. The results only differed by one vote, so at the end of the meeting, the name change was put up to a revote.
The revote still did not result in the required difference. Officials then made the decision to postpone a second revote to the next meeting.
Senior speech pathology and audiology major Karina Arechiga was one of the LSU members present for the vote.
"I was actually surprised," Arechiga said. "I really thought it was going to be close, but I didn't think it was going to be this close."
Arechiga abstained from voting because she was unsure about a possible shift from the cultural focus of LSU to a more LGBTQ-friendly focus.
"I personally have mixed feelings about the name change. I think it is definitely a very progressive step, and I think that's great," Arechiga said. "One of my bigger concerns was that I don't feel like [the officers] explained it well enough."
Mariann Fant, Spectrum president, was also surprised, but understood why there was no name change.
"I kind of expected that it wouldn't change just because I got the sentiment that people were either indifferent or hesitant. So I think when those sentiments are expressed, it's like, 'Might as well not change it,'" Fant said. "I am a little bit surprised but pleasantly surprised."
Fant recognized why some members may hesitate to change Latino to Latinx.
"I realize that [those who voted to remain Latino] probably have grown up in an area where Latino is a really proud cry and a label and very important to them, so I can see how they would be afraid of 'This agenda is coming in and taking my culture.' And I totally understand that, but I think that I would encourage them to take the time to shift their view to a more inclusive language," Fant said.
Members of LSU will be able to revote at the next meeting Nov. 2.
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