IRVINE – UC Irvine’s student government on Saturday shot down a ban on displaying the U.S. flag in its lobby.

The student council’s executive cabinet decided the flag should remain – reversing a ban on displaying flags that the council passed last week.

The executive board vetoed the prohibition on Saturday in a private meeting.

The vote was 4-1.

The ban on the flag was approved 6-4 on Thursday by the Associated Students’ Legislative Council. It banned the U.S. flag and all other nations’ flags from the common lobby area of student council offices. Council members said that promoted “inclusiveness.” Two people abstained.

On Saturday, Reza Zomorrodian, student council president and chair of the executive cabinet, said the five-member panel had a frank discussion about values and the importance of protecting freedom of speech – in other words, allowing people to put up flags.

He added that while people may be upset with policies by the American government, the flag is nonpartisan.

“We see the flag as transcending policy and politics, it represents American values,” he said following the veto. “We disagree with the legislative council, they see it as a representation of policy.”

News of the ban – and the U.S. flag’s removal from a lobby wall – had rapidly made its way around social media and received national attention. Late Friday, Sacramento weighed in. State Senators Janet Nguyen and Pat Bates, along with Assemblyman Don Wagner and other state leaders, announced they were considering introducing a Senate constitutional amendment on Monday to prevent state universities from banning the flag.

Late Saturday afternoon, Nguyen applauded the veto, but said she planned to move forward with the constitutional amendment.

“I want to ensure this won’t happen again,” she said.

The resolution to ban the flag, authored by student Matthew Guevara, said that flags can serve as “weapons for nationalism” and that the American flag had been “flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism.”

Guevara, the council representative from the School of Social Ecology and the Advocacy Committee vice-chair, wrote further that the intent was to design ” a culturally inclusive space,” remove barriers and “allow everyone to participate equally and confidently.”

Modeled after the federal system of government, the student council’s executive cabinet has the power to veto decisions made by the legislative council. If vetoed, the legislative council has to approve the measure with a two-thirds majority to override the veto.

Some students who were on campus on a quiet Saturday afternoon said they hadn’t yet heard about the flag issue, while others were largely against the ban and said the issue had been blown out of proportion.

Angelica Honda, a fifth-year psychology and social behavior/public health student, said she had seen discussion of the issue on Facebook, and many people had put up profile pictures with the American flag.

“It’s good to listen to all different countries and cultures,” Honda said when asked about the ban’s effort at inclusivity. “We should just allow all flags to be displayed, rather than excluding flags.”

The legislative council meets on Tuesday and could choose to override the veto with a two-thirds vote. But even if the measure is passed, it will still go to the judicial board, which will consider whether or not it infringes on freedom of speech and other rights, Zomorrodian said.

He said he did not expect the legislative council to override the veto, considering the “loud and clear” message from campus and executive board.

The university put out a statement on Saturday, calling the flag ban “misguided.”

It said:

“This misguided legislation was not endorsed or supported in any way by the campus leadership, the University of California, or the broader student body. The views of a handful of students passing a resolution do not represent the opinions of the nearly 30,000 students on this campus.”

Guevara did not respond to emailed questions Saturday afternoon.

Contact the writer: kzhou@ocregister.com