For more information on the return of funds to ASUW’s reserves, check out this earlier article: UW trustees replace funds to ASUW.
ASUW met this Tuesday, gaveling in at 7:05 p.m. Senate Bills 2580, 2581 and 2582 as well as Senate Resolutions 2583 and 2584 were up as Old Business. Senate Bills 2585 and 2586 were up as New Business.
SB 2580, titled ASUW Support for a Campus Art Plan, had been tabled during a previous meeting. The student senate voted in favor of taking it off the table and the Budget and Planning and Student Outreach and Policy committees both gave do-pass recommendations.
College of Agriculture Senator Kennedy, who authored the bill, said that since ASUW reserves were moved back into their control by the Board of Trustees, it was time for ASUW to make a decision on allocating the funds described in the legislation.
“The ASUW reserves have officially moved back to ASUW control, this is undebateable, it was in the president’s (Nichols) Monday Morning Message,” Kennedy said. “If it is still an issue to you for some reason, tonight we’re voting to allocate the money. It’s not leaving our bank account yet, so any uncertainty about how the money actually leaves ASUW reserves has plenty of time to be ironed out.”
Kennedy said that the reason for drafting legislation was to establish better procedure of how art is selected for campus.
“I am proposing this because I think it will benefit students a lot,” Kennedy said. “I think that having a plan the university could follow to establish art on campus in a responsible manner, in a way that represents everybody, will add mostly educational value in addition to a lot of other values.”
College of Law Senator Defebaugh said that the legislative body ought to be cautious with how they handle these funds.
“We should be in the business of working to get art displayed on campus, and ASUW should lead the charge towards this end,” Defebaugh said. “I just don’t know that we’re in the place to do a $60,000 dip into this giant pool yet.”
UW Vice President Blackburn said that since it might take a while for the reserve funds to be properly moved, there is no rush for ASUW to make a decision with those funds.
“The University of Wyoming is still working through the process of determining how exactly, regarding the funds restored to you all at the last Board of Trustees meeting, where we put them, how we access them and what processes need to play out,” Blackburn said. “The short answer is that it’s going to take time to figure out how to get that money to you, so you don’t have to feel any rush tonight to make this decision.”
College of Business Senator Cloud moved that the senate table the bill again. The motion was voted on and, after division was called, the bill was tabled via decision made by a standing vote.
SB 2581, titled Special Projects Allocations for Fiscal Year 2018 was properly moved and seconded. It received a do-pass recommendation from Budget and Planning and Academics, Technology and Sustainability committees.
Senator Defebaugh, who also serves as chair of the Budget and Planning committee, said that his committee had discussed the funds allocated by the bill to the levels they currently stand at.
“We had 150,000 roughly applied for and Budget and Planning took it down to 106,000 and then finally reduced it to where you see now,” Defebaugh said.
The Budget and Planning committee processed each allocation in the legislation.
“We checked warranty, we checked release-ability of the things since ASUW does not retain any property rights to any of these purchases, we made sure that it is going to be a long-term investment on campus and service a lot of students,” Defebaugh said.
The legislation was voted on and passed unanimously, with amendments.
SB 2582, concerning the process of filling senate vacancies, was tabled.
SR 2583, titled Support for the Observance of Mental Health Awareness Day, established ASUW recognition of Mental Health Awareness Day in their office. The resolution was passed with unanimous consent, after an amendment changing the day to November 29 was added.
SR 2584, titled Support for University and ASUW Cooperation with the ENDOW Initiative, was also passed via unanimous consent after it was offered a do-pass with amendments recommendation by the Academics, Technology and Sustainability committee.
SB 2585, pertaining to reserves policy, was steered to Budget and Planning and SB 2586, regarding restructuring of senate service hours, was steered to Programming and Institution Development committees.
ASUW gaveled out at 11:05 pm.
