The student body of the University of Wyoming may look forward to greater access to their ASUW representatives with the new requirement of office hours for all senators. This change will be enacted in the week after spring break.
At Tuesday’s ASUW Senate meeting, the body discussed and voted on a number of bills including the approval of two constitutions for both the United Multicultural Council and Non-Traditional Student Council Constitution.
Senate Bill #2860- Requiring ASUW Senators to Have Office Hours monopolized the evenings discussion with senators debating the necessity of office hours, where they ought to be held, and by what modalities they may be conducted.
Senator Rhiannon McLean brought up a question of accessibility, specifically for future senators and students who may have issues navigating ASUW tight office space or the Union as a whole.
“The ASUW office is a very narrow, tiny space that used to be a bowling alley. If you have mobility issues or accessibility problems, office hours in the office are not always going to be accessible to you. There are so many elements that could maybe necessitate legislative approval from the Vice President to hold your office hours somewhere else.”
She continued, “While we may not have issues with that in this current Senate, we hope that ASUW goes for another 110 years. And so with that in mind, I would say that perhaps we should keep in mind that what we are legislating right now will impact the accessibility of senators in the future.”
An amendment in the second order was introduced by Senator Peri Hennigar to address this issue. The amendment specified office hours would be held with a strong encouragement to be within 100 feet of the ASUW office for the convenience of locating senators, and communications between pro-staff, representatives, and their constituency.
This amendment did fail, however. Senators Colter Anderson and Cole Schliebe
felt it may not be necessary to hold office hours in the ASUW office, or even in the Union when other spaces may facilitate more productive work. Senator Schliebe said,
“I don’t see how I am being forced to be in a place where maybe me, or a future senator to say maybe it’s more comfortable to work in a different space. Or maybe there’s just a better space on campus, like a library or more quiet space where I can get more productive work done.”
Senator Langston Bouma stood in opposition to the bill as a whole, saying,
“I think a question that I think needs to be raised is do we senators actually want this? I just haven’t heard a lot of senators really voice their opinions in favor of having office hours. I know a lot of people are very, very busy at this university. Personally, I would be double dipping my office hours anyway. So I’m kind of not in favor of this bill as a whole.”
As these issues of convenience and productivity were brought up, First Year Senator Aidan Mcguire asserted his opinion that these factors should not be of paramount consideration in the larger conversation of office hours.
“UW senators are elected officials, and when you’re serving in a capacity that is, as a representative of a certain body, that position is not about the convenience of that position.” He said.
“That position is about the service that you can provide to the students that you were elected to represent. I completely understand that people have busy schedules, but I think that this ability to open ourselves up to communications with the student body is essential.”
McGuire disagreed with Senator Grant Brammer’s argument that, much like office hours for any class on campus, attendance would be low.
“If we’re really using our time to meet with constituents, I guarantee nobody’s actually going to show up. Just knowing me as a general student, I definitely wouldn’t show up to something like that.” said Braimer.
McGuire and other senators made the point that not providing office hours was not an appropriate reaction to the expectation of low attendance, and that as Mclane said,
“Office hours don’t matter until they do.”
Ultimately ASUW agreed in a vote of 2-16, with one abstention, that office hours should be instituted. With ASUW elections held in the weeks following Spring Break, students can expect even greater access to candidates and the opportunity to voice concerns, share ideas, and get to know their representatives.
