Two issues were brought up for debate during the most recent session of the ASUW senate. The first was renaming freshman senate to first-year senate and the second was revising senator responsibilities.
Senate bills No. 2612, ASUW By-Laws and Working Documents Revision-Changing the Name of Freshman Senate to First-Year Senate and No. 2613, ASUW Constitution Revision-Changing the Name of Freshman Senate to First-Year Senate, were focused on the same issue, changing the name of freshman senate to first-year senate. However, they had to be done in separate bills since they were changing two different documents.
“I think it is important to emphasize that this bill is not asking much, it is just asking for ASUW to update its documents to reflect the change that Freshman Senate made almost two months ago with the passage of freshman senate bill No. 53,” Ex-officio from the United Multicultural Council Dusten Strock said.
While Joel Defebaugh, senator of the college of law, was in support of this bill, he did warn of unforeseen impacts that could come of this.
“I think we need to market very carefully how we approach the new change to First-Year Senate,” Defebaugh said. “What I don’t want, is people having the implication that you have to be in First-Year Senate to be in ASUW Senate.”
Jordan Blazovich, from the college of health sciences, spoke out against the bill, citing issues that it was too late in the current administration and the impact it will have on the next.
“I feel like this is a bill I would have liked to have seen a little bit sooner and the reason for this is we are talking about this at the end of this administration,” Blazovich said. “Should this pass, this is going to take time from the new administration.”
Eventually, SB No. 2612 was passed on a vote of 15-3 and SB No. 2613 was passed on a vote of 15-3-1. The discrepancy here was due to a senator walking in as the vote was taking place and abstaining.
The last bill that was discussed was SB No. 2614, ASUW Senator Requirements Revision. According to the bill, its aim is to lessen the burden of time required for ASUW senators, so that retention rate can be improved.
Defebaugh said one change was to open up what counts as service hours, to include more and to prevent preferential treatment among parts of ASUW.
“By allowing senators to attend a meeting of a program, service, or strategic partner, there is no indication in our by-laws that one of our programs, services, or strategic partners gets preference over another and I think that is important,” Defebaugh said.
SB No. 2614 was passed on a vote of 19-0. The Senate meeting ended with the tabling of Senate Bill No. 2615 and the reading of Senate Bill No. 2616, both of which will be up for consideration during the next session, which will take place in the college of law.
