The 111th Senate of the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming (ASUW) spent a majority of Oct. 31, 2023, weekly debate on Senate Resolution #2912 ‘Freedom of Expression’ which ultimately passed by one vote.
The meeting started with Kameron Murfitt being sworn in as the new Vice President, replacing the vacancy left by Jessica Petri.
Following this, the senate body heard a Student Organization Funding Board (SOFB) request from the Student Chapter of Energy Resources and filled out various vacancies in the ASUW administration by voting to confirm Isabelle Marie-Cruz as the new Judicial Council Associate Justice.
Additionally, they voted Jerry Henderson as the new Chief of Staff for ASUW’s Executive Branch, as well as electing Senator Cord Anderson as the new President Pro Tempore and Senator Alli Grimm as the new Sargeant at Arms.
After the confirmations and elections, Senate Resolution #2912 ‘Freedom of Expression’ was read for the second time on the floor.
Senator Peri Hennigar made two separate motions, the first was to suspend Article 6 Section 6.01, Sub-sections 2, 3 and 4 of the ASUW Rules and Procedures, and the second was to dissolve the Senate into a Committee of the Whole. Both of which, after some discussion, passed with a four-fifths standing vote, and two-thirds standing vote, respectively.
Before the Senate body passed both motions, Senator Hennigar said, “It’s important that everyone gets the chance to discuss it. Only three committees got to see it, and if we only let those three committees get in on it, then we’re preventing the larger discussion from taking place and we are kind of saying that, hey, we are against freedom of speech.”
Following the dissolution of the Senate body, the Committee of the Whole debated SR #2912 for over an hour and a half, with various Senators voicing their concerns over the wording of the resolution’s Addendum A. Many, like Senators Paden Knull, Ashlynne Meiklejohn, and First Year Senator Hefley indicated that their main concern was around the language surrounding the topics of hate speech and neutrality and how it may inadvertently tolerate or even advocate for hate speech.
Senator Knull quoted the ASUW By-Laws and Code of Ethics section 5.01, before stating he believed that Addendum A of SR #2912 failed to uphold this Code of Ethics, and that he believed the wording of the Addendum protects hate speech.
Senator Knull also touched on the bill’s focus on institutional neutrality.
“There are some issues that as an institution, we cannot be neutral on, there are some issues that as a student government we cannot be neutral on, like the Black 14, Matthew Shepard; there should be a time UW ends up in the New York Times that is not the University making a bad call,” Senator Knull said. “We are not protecting students. We can be on the cutting edge, but this Addendum, Addendum A appears to be regressive, rather than progressive in this regard.”
Senator Gabriel Saint, the author of SR #2912, also addressed the committee of the whole by saying he supported amending the resolution and replacing Addendum A with a copy of the statement released by the Freedom of Expression, Intellectual Freedom, and Constructive Dialogue Working Group on June 7, 2023, which is titled Addendum B.
“I know the biggest qualm that many of you have with this resolution is hate speech, and I would like to ask you how horrible would it be if you could not go around campus and criticize the policy of an opposing side? A lot of students go around campus feeling that way,” senator Saint said in response to the concerns raised by other senators.
He continued, “Left and right, gay or straight and that’s just the reality we do live in and that’s why I wrote this, and that’s why President Seidel convened the committee.”
Following this conversation a vote was held to adopt an amendment to SR #2912 that would strike Addendum A and replace it with Addendum B, which passed with an 18-2-2 standing vote.
Senators then began their discussion on the resolution once again, which lasted for another hour and a half, and eventually ended with a 11-10-1 roll call vote, with Vice President Murfitt being the deciding vote for the passing of SR #2912.
The last hour of the meeting was used to vote on Senate Bill #2914, ‘Establishing Clear and Concise Speaking Rules,’ and failed with an 11-8-2 vote, as it did not meet the two-thirds threshold.
Additionally, the Senate voted Senator Anderson in as an Ad-Hoc committee member, Senator Meiklejohn as a Steering committee member, and Aiden McGuire, who resigned in the previous week’s meeting, as Senator of the Month for October.
The Senate suspended the first readings of SR #2915, ‘Advocacy for University of Wyoming Fall Break,’ SB #2916, ‘Changing the name of the Outreach, Programming, and Elections Committee’ and SB #2917, ‘A Bill to Recognize the FYS Steering Committee Liaison in the ASUW By-Laws’ until their next weekly meeting to be held on Nov. 7, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.
