ASUW voted Tuesday to pass a bill that will eliminate the primary in its annual election.
“The intent of this bill is to shorten the campaigning. The duration between when people start campaigning and when students start losing interest happens pretty quickly,” ASUW president Joel Defebaugh said. “A whole month of campaigning has been the process for a long time and it works here, but I don’t know if it’s the best for our candidates and for the student body.”
Sen. Kia Murdoch from Arts and Sciences was in favor of the bill because it would give candidates more time to campaign.
“I’m in favor of five weeks, possibly four weeks to campaign. Campaigning is not just standing in the breezeway and smiling; it includes going and talking to other university institutions,” Murdoch said. “Senators are very busy and matching their schedules with those institutions can be difficult.”
Some of the senators felt that by adding or reducing the amount of time for the elections would put it too close to the concert in April.
“I think it’s quite an unfair advantage to throw a $70,000 concert and then say we’re having an election the next week. I think that gives incumbent senators an unfair advantage,” Sen. Brian Schueler from Arts and Sciences said.
However, Sen. Jaryd Unangst said the elections would most likely not be influenced by the concert.
“Voting will end before the concert so all we would be able to say is ‘we hope you voted yesterday,’ so I think that should be OK,” Unangst said.
Some also were concerned that having a primary and a general election caused voters to drop off in previous elections because some students were confused about voting twice. However, Sen. Josh Messer from Agriculture said there was little proof that there was much drop off between primary and general elections.
“I’ve looked back into previous elections and there are very few cases that there were drop-offs between the primary and the general election,” Messer said.
Sen. Alex Brink from Arts and Sciences was concerned that in previous elections some did not know the difference between the primary and the general election.
“A big concern for me was trying to get people to understand what a primary was and I think getting them to vote twice was an issue,” Brink said. “I think if we consolidate and have one date I think we will have higher numbers.”
The bill was eventually passed by a vote of 22-3.
Another bill was proposed to make ACRES Student Farm an ASUW program.
ACRES is a farm located on 1.8 acres of land off-campus that is run mostly by student volunteers. The farm grows vegetables as organically and sustainably as possible, then sells them during the summer, Perry Baptista, an AmeriCorps representative from the group, said.
It is also involved in a number of local programs by donating leftover produce to Sharing the Bounty and the Laramie Soup Kitchen.
Members of the program feel that ACRES is an important part of the future of students who wish to go into agriculture or agroecology.
“ACRES is sort of a spring to jumpstart careers for a lot of students,” ACRES Vice President Sarah Legg said.
Members of the program feel that ACRES is growing beyond a student program and needs more support.
“ACRES has clearly outgrown our RSO status and we now function as more of a business. ASUW will offer stability and support that ACRES cannot achieve on its own,” Baptista said.
The senate voted to postpone the vote to make ACRES an ASUW program until its meeting on Feb. 12.
The senate was also addressed by Faculty Senate Chair Michael Barker who took issue with House
Bill 105 and said that the faculty senate was addressing this issue. House Bill 105 would allow those with concealed weapons permits to carry weapons on campus, which Faculty Senate is not in favor of.
“Imagine you’re in a class and taking a test and the test isn’t going well. Your first thought is ‘I want to shoot someone,” Barker said. “We just don’t the opportunity to be there.”
