Tonight Laura Steele will present a resolution from the floor to the Auburn Student Government Association ("SGA") calling on the SGA to rename the recently termed "Holiday tree" to a Christmas tree.

From its inception as a Methodist University in the 1800s, Auburn University ("AU") student have celebrated Christmas and historically have lit a Christmas tree at the first part of December. This year the SGA issued a press release announcing the lighting of the "Holiday tree" on December 1. Laura Steele, a junior political science major, an SGA Senator-at-Large and Chairman of the College Republicans, which last year was the largest Republican student organization in Alabama, protested the renaming of the tree. With the help of fellow AU student Jackie Smith and attorney Michael Fellows, Steele drafted a resolution calling on the SGA to call the tree a Christmas tree.

While a majority of the student body supports Steele, it is uncertain whether the SGA will pass the resolution. SGA Vice President B.J. Agnew stated that calling the tree a Christmas tree "creates a problem of exclusion rather than acceptance." At tonight's vote, it is rumored that some SGA members may try to kill the resolution by relying upon a procedural quirk in a very thick Code of Laws that has never been used against any previous resolution in the past several years.

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated: "A menorah is associated with Hanukkah. Its name should not be changed, even though a bigot might object. Santa and his sleigh appear during December bearing Christmas gifts. His name and those of his reindeer entourage should not be changed because some believe he is too secular. Everyone knows that a green, pointed tree we decorate in December is a Christmas tree. We should not change its name merely because some mumble the mantra of inclusiveness. For these inclusiveness advocates, Hanukkah is in, Kwanzaa is in, Santa Claus is in, but Christmas is out. Renaming a Christmas tree to a "Holiday tree" is hypocritical political correctness run amok."

Liberty Counsel is providing assistance to Laura Steele.