The ASSU Undergraduate Senate recounted the story of seniors Bharat Venkat and Vinni Intersimone last night, two gay undergraduates who were verbally abused by a group of three non-Stanford students earlier this month while walking on Mayfield Ave.

Junior Laura Mesa addressed the Senate and encouraged the body to issue a statement condemning the attack.

“We cannot be at the mercy of the outside community,” she said.

A Senate statement was particularly important, she argued, because the only publicity about the crime was a column — written by the victims themselves — in the Oct. 12 issue of The Daily.

The Advocacy Committee will meet Friday to discuss a possible response to the attack.

The other main item of business was junior and Senate Chair Hershey Avula’s report that the Faculty Senate has approved the University’s plan to start granting master’s degrees in African and African-American Studies.