ASUW Senate Bill 2573 has become stalled, tabled in the Steering Committee. SB 2573 would effectually dissolve ASUW’s Constitution Committee. According to the legislation, the bill is necessary to improve efficiency of the committees and to reduce the imbalance of work that each committee does.
“Senate Bill No. 2573 is currently something we are taking week by week,” ASUW Vice President and Chairman of the Steering Committee Jaynie Welsh said. “There are quite a few senators, as well as some other constituents, who have expressed interest in changing ASUW Standing Committee structure even more so than the Senate Bill No. 2573 is currently.”
The Steering Committee has tabled the bill in order to allow for full consideration of the legislation.
“Steering is tabling it to make sure that those invested parties have ample time to bring their amendments forward, and outreach to constituents,” Welsh said.
Welsh, who is also a sponsor for the bill, said that she is in favor of the passage of the legislation unchanged, but would also support it if the senate debates and approves changes to its language.
“If Senate Bill No. 2573 passes as is, I would be content with that,” Welsh said. “If it is changed on the floor when the senate debates it, it will be something that the senate feels comfortable implementing and I would be content with that too.”
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Senator Jacob Kennedy is the author of SB 2573. He said he is amiable towards the tabled status of his bill.
“I am content with that status,” Kennedy said. “By being tabled, many of the senators on the Steering Committee have gone out and encouraged other senators to evaluate their work and their committee’s efficiency.”
Kennedy said that a focus of the legislation was to ensure ASUW government and senator efficiency.
“One of my core goals with this bill was to make sure our Student Government was using their time in the best and most effective way possible, so for this bill to prompt a self-evaluation of every committee couldn’t be better,” Kennedy said. “I think our Student Government should frequently evaluate themselves and make sure they are doing meaningful work for the students they represent.”
Welsh said that she believes students want to see bigger changes to ASUW committee structure, particularly; an increased diversity element and heightened senator focus on external issues that pertain to the campus as a whole.
“Ultimately, I think people want to see an official diversity component added to our standing committees, and we want to make sure senators are not too bogged down with internal ASUW workings that we aren’t fully serving the University of Wyoming as a whole,” Welsh said.
The inspiration for the bill came from discussion pertaining to committee relevance and how senator time is spent.
“For too long, ASUW elected officials have served on committees such as constitution that focus solely on the inner workings of ASUW, and we pull in a student-at-large to serve on university committees such as Programmatic Fee Implementation, Strategic Enrollment Management, and search committees,” Welsh said. “It just does not make a lot of sense that those who were actually elected to represent students are not able to serve on these very impactful university wide committees because they have to serve on two ASUW Standing Committees.”
Some stand in disagreement with the premise of deconstructing committees.
“The bill would eliminate a necessary facet of bureaucracy, and, while bureaucracy is usually a bad thing, the structure of the committee system helps big changes from happening too quickly without due consideration,” a senior majoring in secondary education/social studies, Jessie Leach, said.
Leach said that she is appreciative of SB 2573’s tabled status and would like to see amendments proposed while it is under extended consideration.
“At the same time, big gov sucks, and I am in favor of an amendment that would turn the committee into a special committee that meets when called upon, which will best limit the undue time ASUW spends on issues,” Leach said.
Welsh said that she is not sure how long the bill will be tabled.
“I do know it will be long enough to allow for proper outreach to students,” Welsh said. “We do not want to rush into anything, and we have time.”
