To the concerned students at the University of Oregon:
We take complete responsibility for what happened at ASUO Senate on Wednesday, Nov. 7. Please accept this letter as our formal apology for voting to close discussion before all students had the chance to speak on the Mallard Madness proposal. We recognize now that our decision prevented several students from getting the chance to express their concerns over the proposal. Furthermore, we realize that the discussion could have been fashioned more effectively to ensure all audience members had the chance to speak. In retrospect, we had several alternatives for running the meeting that would have allowed for a more inclusive and open discussion.
We were wrong to close discussion before receiving everyone’s input. While this by no means excuses or justifies what happened, recognizing our errors helps us guard against future mistakes.
Again, we are sorry for what happened. If you would like to continue this conversation or suggest ways in which we can run our meetings or operate our speakers list, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We will be proposing rules at our meeting on Nov. 14 that will ensure students will always have the opportunity in future meetings to speak.
Sincerely,
Matthew Miyamoto, Senate Seat 7 and Senate President
Ben Rudin, Senate Seat 19 and Ombudsperson
Taylor Allison, Senate Seat 2 and Treasurer
Will Steiner, Senate Seat 15 and Academic Chair
Beau Acoba, Senate Seat 1
A.J. Gorton, Senate Seat 4
Megan Jones, Senate Seat 12
Parker Williams, Senate Seat 20