ASUW Director of Governmental Affairs Amy Andreen gives an update to the senate on Tuesday wearing a festive Christmas sweater. The last ASUW senate meeting of the fall semester was holiday sweater day.
The Associated Students of the University of Wyoming voted unanimously in their last fall semester meeting to update several sections of the ASUW bylaws.
The changes include an elimination of the requirement that ASUW senators give presentations to classrooms, an increase in time for the ASUW vice president to fill committee positions each fall and the addition of a requirement that senators remain full-time students throughout the year.
Sen. Joshua Messer, author of the bill, said the bill was a culmination of changes recommended by the Constitution Committee.
The biggest change was removing the requirement that each senator give a presentation about ASUW to his or her largest class. ASUW President Joel Defebaugh cautioned against completely striking the language from the bylaws.
“I just hope that you guys give a lot of consideration to Addendum B, the part about striking it completely. As a senator, I did it. I think it is a bit lazy to strike it completely,” Defebaugh said. “There are a lot of ways it could be amended. I think it is a vital thing that senators do outreach.”
Messer said the committee recommended removing the requirement because it is difficult to enforce, often ignored and the professors often are not amiable to giving up class time.
“It might not be the best way to address students. We did agree that there should be some kind of outreach,” Messer said.
Sen. Mitchell Nedved recommended passing the bill as-is and coming back later with a new outreach requirement that does not inconvenience the professors.
The second change will give the ASUW vice president 30 days to put together committee assignments in place of the current 14-day limit.
“Vice President [Brett] Kahler was having trouble filling those committee assignments within the 14 days,” Messer said.
Finally, the bill added guidelines for how to create ex-officio positions to the senate. Messer said when the UW Faculty Senate sought to be added as an ex-officio, senators were left uncertain in how to proceed.
Four senators announced their resignation from ASUW senate at the last meeting. Taylor True, Dustin Bales, Brody Tate and Cati Calvetti will not resume their positions in the spring. This will leave three vacant positions in the College of Arts and Sciences and one vacant position in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
