The Associated Students of the University of Wyoming had the first reading of an ex-officio bill on Tuesday.
If approved next week, the bill will change the rules regarding senate meeting attendance for ex-officios.
Ex-officios are positions established by ASUW for organizations, councils and committees on campus that have a vested interest in senate proceedings. The groups send a representative, not always the same person, to each senate meeting.
Campus organizations that have ex-officio positions include Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, Non-traditional Student Council, the Residence Hall Association and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
Sen. Morgan Powell, sponsor of the bill, said, “We just wanted to change it because the consistency of the ex-officios was not turning out to be what we hoped it would be.”
Powell said ex-officios may not vote, but the discussion and viewpoints they provide is important. She said ex-officios have the opportunity to speak on bills and have an open line of communication with senators.
Currently, ex-officios may miss up to four consecutive meetings before there are repercussions. Therefore, an ex-officio may only need to attend senate a few times a year to keep the status active.
If a group goes unrepresented for eight meetings, ASUW may remove the organization from the list of ex-officio positions. Under the new bill, organizations with ex-officio representation would only be allowed to miss four meetings total.
“They are supposed to be a liaison between ASUW and other groups, and they are not doing that if they miss a lot of meetings,” Powell said. “I talked to a couple ex-officios from last year and they thought it was a good idea because they had sometimes taken advantage of that rule.”
