ASUW met in the senate chambers on Tuesday, gaveling in at 7:37 p.m. The senators were coming from their mandatory diversity training, which they had just completed. When approving the agenda, there were motions to add discussion on canceling the Dec. 12 meeting, add Senate Bill 2584 to new business as well as the approval of a fall semester away meeting.
During gallery addresses to the senate, Tyler Wolfgang, Isacc Roque and Jessie Leach spoke regarding the Dennis Prager event that took place last week. Their statements encouraged good will among students and a campus environment of respectful dialogue.
For old business, senate bills 2579 and 2580 were up for discussion and second and third readings.
SB 2579, which had to do with updating senator responsibilities received a second reading and the legislative body opened the floor for discussion on the legislation once the senate voted in favor of removing Steering Committee from one of the two committees considering the bill. Student Outreach and Policy was the other committee considering the bill and offered it a do-not pass recommendation, with amendments.
College of Education Senator Hungerford moved for an amendment that stated, “Senators shall attend one (1) United Multi-Cultural Council sponsored meeting or event per semester.”
The amendment was discussed and voted down.
Hungerford also proposed an amendment that would require senators to hold their round tables simultaneously with their respective college senators. This amendment was voted on and passed.
A final amendment was moved by Hungerford, which could make the proposed roundtables described in the legislation to be logged as senator service hours. This amendment was voted down.
After the amendments were considered, Vice President Welsh opened the floor to discussion on the whole bill.
During discussion on the bill, Hungerford said “I would just like to say that my other colleague from the College of Education did this this semester and it was really helpful for us to open those lines of communication and really get to see what we could do better.”
College of Health Sciences Senator Blazovich said that whenever ASUW tries to add or subtract senator responsibilities, it tends to not go well depending on the senate.
“There has been attempts in the past to amend senator responsibilities and it seems like whenever you add or subtract senator responsibilities, it doesn’t go well depending on the senate,” Blazovich said. “That being said, I think that the committee as a whole believed that it was a logistical concern when it came down to scheduling the round table with all of those involved.”
College of Arts and Sciences Senator Fried said that such a requirement is redundant since some colleges already have discussion events with their senators.
“First of all, the College of Arts and Sciences already has events like this that are actually once a month, so I think that this requirement would get confusing logistically for colleges already have events like this,” Fried said.
After further discussion, the bill received a third reading and was voted down by a vote of 19 opposed, 4 in favor.
SB 2580, which would allocate $60,000 out of the ASUW reserve for consultant fees for the completion of the University of Wyoming Campus Art Plan, received a do-pass recommendation from both the Budget and Planning and Student Outreach and Policy committees.
However, during discussion on the bill, College of Law Senator Defebaugh moved that since ASUW does not have its reserves in order, they should not consider that bill yet and instead, table it.
“We don’t have our reserves yet, pending Board of Trustees meeting next week,” Defebaugh said. “I think it would be unwise for the senate to consider this bill and the pot of money this allocation is coming from when it is not necessarily ours at this time.”
The motion to table the bill passed unanimously.
The senate then discussed the new business of senate bills 2581, 2582, 2584 and senate resolution 2583.
According to SB 2581, titled Special Projects Allocations for Fiscal Year 2018, “be it enacted by the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming (ASUW) Student Government that $46,182.52 be allocated from the Special Projects Endowment and its corresponding line in Fiscal Year 2018 Budget as outlined in Addendum A.”
This legislation was steered to Budget and Planning and Academics, Technology and Sustainability committees.
According to SB 2582, titled ASUW Senate Vacancy Procedures Revision, the procedures of filling senate vacancies will be changed from an appointment by committee procedure to a vacancy election procedure.
This bill was steered to Senate Vacancy committee.
SR 2583, titled Support for the Observance of Mental Health Awareness Day, encourages ASUW professional staff to find time in the month of November to focus on their mental health and well-being.
This resolution was steered to Program and Institutional Development Committee.
SB 2584, titled Support for University and ASUW Cooperation with the ENDOW Initiative, seeks to maintain communication with members of the governor’s ENDOW council.
To close the legislative part of their meeting, ASUW voted in favor of cancelling meetings directly before and during Christmas Break and in favor of their fall semester away meeting, where they will be meeting in a location outside of the senate chambers.
