The ASUO Rules Committee met Monday night to discuss the issue of nonfulfillment of duties by senators in regards to both the wording of the current text in the Green Tape Notebook, and the procedure for reprimand.@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/senate.php?a=169@@
“The debate is what the word ‘may’ means (in the constitution), in regards to what may constitute nonfulfillment,” Sen. Ben Rudin said. “Debate between whether ‘may’ gives Constitutional Court discretion or whether it means examples of nonfulfillment can be, but aren’t limited to (an indefinite list of items).”
“The court should have discretion and take it case-by-case, but there should be factors for them to consider,” Sen. Emma Newman said.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Emma+Newman@@
Among the issues discussed regarding the ambiguity of the current GTN clause was the fact that under current rules, multiple serving ASUO senators could be found in nonfulfillment.
“There are actually a number of senators who could be removed right now for (not) coming to senator meetings,” Senator Harlan Mechling@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Harlan+Mechling@@ said, listing senators Tom Schally@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Schally@@ and Kaitlyn Lange@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Kaitlyn+Lange@@ as examples of how senators could be found in nonfulfillment for missing meetings, even when giving prior notice. “Lange’s never contacted me. Schally hasn’t contacted me.”
The issue of discretion when it came to enforcement and punishment of nonfulfillment rules took up the majority of the meeting, including the idea of a sliding scale for punishment. Multiple senators agreed that removing someone from an officer position — such as the removal of Sen. Lamar Wise from the position of Senate president after being found in nonfulfillment — was not as severe a punishment as being removed from the senate entirely. They also listed both lesser punishments for offending senators, and the period of time one must be in nonfulfillment in order to constitute punishment.
“Nonfulfillment for three weeks shall constitute grounds for punishment,” Rudin said.
After more than an hour of debate, the committee seemed pleased with their amendments to the text, which read in part, “The word ‘may’ shall be construed to provide discretion to find, or not find (nonfulfillment), to the deciding entity or deciding agency.”
“I feel like we’ve given more structure,” Newman said. “It’s definitely an improvement. A step in the right direction.”