The ASUW Student Senate has taken its first steps towards restructuring itself in an attempt that some in ASUW say better serves the UW community following the passing of three resolutions at the Dec. 7 ASUW meeting.
The Dec. 7 ASUW meeting saw the passing of 11 pieces of legislation, three of which related directly to Senate efforts to restructure itself in order to cater to UW as a whole. These resolutions reportedly seek to better focus ASUW on specific issues, as well as make ASUW involvement more equitable for lower-income students.
“Empathize with students, our constituents, who have the same drive, the same motivations as all of us in this room, but don’t have the privilege to give up hours of their week to serve their fellow students,” Senator Tanner Ewalt said.
Ewalt said this in reference to Senate Resolution (SR) 2771. SR 2771 seeks to use ASUW funds to pay senators for their work. This rate would be comparative to that of other student employment, though exact figures were not discussed at this time.
The senate presented two primary goals for passing this resolution which would increase the overall amount of pay directed towards student senators. .
First, ASUW hopes that paying senators will improve their involvement and encourage more students to get involved with ASUW.
The primary hope is that by making the ASUW experience more financially viable, the student government would be potentially more attractive to interested students.
Second, ASUW stated that paying senators would lower the economic barrier for lower-income students or students with less parental support to get involved, as the time commitments can heavily conflict with student employment.
Discussions about student involvement increases have varied, but the consensus is that a larger section of compensation would aid in allowing students who cannot sacrifice time without recompense a chance to focus on ASUW.
“I don’t think there is any shame in asking to be adequately compensated for your time,” Senator Riley Talamantes said. “Particularly in a position that is so demanding.”
Talamantes added that Executive staff members are compensated, despite senators not being paid. It was noted by others present that similar student bodies at other universities are compensated, so passing this resolution would put UW in line with similar schools.
With this equitability goal in mind, the senate also wanted to readjust how it approached topics and issues on the UW campus as a whole through SR 2769 and SR 2770.
SR 2769 will reduce the number of senate seats from 32 to 21 and will allocate seats via an at-large model in a general election. The current model allocates a number of seats to each college (relative to their size) with vacant seats being filled by application.
The planned reduction in seats is a two-fold decision, as it is influenced by both the past and future of the senate.
Historically, the senate sees what it considers to be adequate or high levels of involvement from approximately 20-24 of its 32 senators, so reducing the total number of seats is not expected to hinder their ability to represent the student population adequately.
Additionally, reducing the number of senators makes it more feasible to pay them without substantially raising the ASUW student fee beyond what was recommended in SR 2761.
SR 2761 recommended a 13% increase to the ASUW student fee, equating to $6.31. A portion of this fee will be used to make up the difference between ASUW’s current budget and the expected budget necessary to pay senators.
For some senators, moving to an at-large model instead of a model based on college representation was a point of concern.
“This conversation, ‘how do we best represent our constituents?’ has been going on for a long time, as long as governments have been around,” Senator Johnathon True said. “[In America] a representative republic has been the best way to represent our constituents.”
True added that the representative model better ensured for minority populations to be represented in ASUW, in this instance referring to smaller colleges and schools on campus. Examples include the College of Law or the School of Energy Resources, both of which hold a single seat on the senate.
These concerns are supposed to be somewhat alleviated by the following resolution according to some in ASUW. SR 2770 is a resolution that sets in motion the creation of a College Council designed to provide an equitable representation of schools and to allow its members to solely focus on college specific issues.
The Senate currently focuses primarily on campus-wide issues, so allocating seats by college does not guarantee that college-specific issues get addressed in a timely manner.
A similar problem is presented if ASUW shifted its focus to cover more college-specific issues, as it could limit their time to discuss more impactful events and nuances on campus.
ASUW’s hope for these resolutions is that in tandem it will allow for greater focus and evaluation of all potential scenarios on the UW campus, as both the senate and the council can work independent of each other, while still having clear avenues to communicate on necessary talking points.
More resolutions of this nature are expected to pass next semester. Current and upcoming changes are expected to be fully implemented for the next ASUW administration.
