The Associated Students of the University of Wyoming passed a couple bills that directly impact the student body.
The first was Senate Bill No. 2573, which restructured senate committees and the way they reach out to other university committees so that there is more student voice. Senator Jordan Blasovich, of the college of health sciences, praised the bill for finally integrating diversity into a committee where it belongs.
Part of the bill involved dissolving the constitution committee, and to pre-empt any concerns on how easily the governing rules of ASUW can be changed, Senator Metcalf, of the college of engineering, said, “We are not signaling to our constituents that the governing rules are not going to be so changeable. Disposing of this facet is going to ensure that changes to our legislative body are going to be well planned and articulated.”
The second was Senate Resolution No. 2577, which would increase student program fees by $6, but it would allow for ASUW to have greater control over how all program fees were spent, instead of the individual colleges.
“Our student fee process, particularly the mandatory student fee process is not well protected or regulated at all right now,” President of ASUW, Ben Wetzel, said. “We wanted to put this in place to make it very clear that we are okay with program fees because of the long-term benefit of that will have to transparency and clarity to students.”
New business introduced Senate Bill No. 2578, Disclaimer Amendment to the ASUW Finance Policy, which was brought into a committee of the whole so it could be voted on immediately, instead of steering it into a regular standing committee, as is the norm.
The bill was introduced in response to the funding of the Dennis Prager event last week. SB 2578 would amend the general ASUW disclaimer on events that they fund.
“Because we funded an event that will bring a conversation to campus, in an attempt to not exclude any students, we represent we wanted to make it clear that our goal is to bring events to campus that are educational, without trying to alienate students that might be opposed to it,” Senator Wendy Hungerford, who supported the bill, said.
While the bill was passed, it was passed on a vote of 17-7.
“We’ve always attempted to mirror state and federal government actions, structure and how we negotiate,” Senator Joel Defebaugh, who opposed the bill, said. “I think that U.S. taxpayers don’t get a say and they don’t put disclaimers on what taxes are spent on, and this moves away from the reality that we support the students.”
