Student leaders at the University of Mississippi passed a resolution to remove the Mississippi state flag from its campus since the flag contains the Confederate battle emblem. Once the resolution is signed, it will be up to school administrators to decide whether or not the controversial flag will actually be removed.

On Tuesday, 33 student senators at the university, in Oxford, Mississippi, voted in favor of getting rid of the controversial flag, while 15 opposed and one person abstained, reports CNN.

"Seeing an institution with such an unpleasant history take steps toward progress can have an immense impact on the decisions of lawmakers," said Tysianna Marino, vice president of the University of Mississippi NAACP. "We have the ability to show the nation Mississippi is not stagnant. We are ready for progress."

However, some conservative members of the Ole Miss student body, such as 21-year-old student senator Andrew Soper, argued that the school should keep the flag on its campus grounds.

"Politically correct positions should not be forced onto the students of the University of Mississippi by a few liberal leaning students and organizations, and media bias," said Soper via Facebook.

Now that the resolution has been approved, officials at the university will decide whether to take down the flag. However, Marino warned the institution will likely not act of removing it anytime soon.

"I do not believe the university officials will take it down hastily," she said.

Meanwhile, university spokesman Danny Blanton said that the university may seek input from other campus representative bodies "before considering how to move forward."

National debate over the Confederate battle flag reignited after a racist white man named Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people praying inside of a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. Before the attack, the professed gunman posed with the flag and allegedly embraced it as a symbol of white supremacy.

Following the massacre, civil rights leaders across the country successfully pushed South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley to remove the flag from its Capitol.