Sen. Lee Warnecke told the 2008-09 Student Senate that they accomplished more in one night than the previous Senate had in two months at the end of a four-hour meeting Wednesday night.
The new Senate confirmed three nominees from ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz and formed a rules committee to review a resolution to create an ASUO space on Blackboard. But it was the accomplishment of passing a plan for electronic ticket distribution that drew Warnecke’s praise.
Senators did not make any major changes to the plan for students to acquire tickets to University football and basketball games online via GoDucks.com.
Sens. Lidiana Soto and Noor Rajabzadeh attempted to pass an amendment to make some tickets available at the EMU Ticket Office for students who do not have access to computers, but the amendment failed. Sen. Alex McCafferty said the athletic department would reject the plan if such a provision was included.
Other senators sought to lessen the requirement that students attend all home football games to access a pre-sale of Civil War tickets when the game is in Corvallis. Sen. Emma Kallaway said students should get early access if they attend all games for which they request tickets. McCafferty said too many students would be included in the early pool if that was the requirement.
Just as in the previous Senate, increased revenue the athletic department could receive as a result of increased Web traffic to GoDucks.com was a hotly debated topic. Sen. Tyler Scandalios said senators “could be opening a Pandora’s box” because maintaining the site could be far more costly than any increased revenue would offset.
In the end, senators settled for requiring the Web site’s revenue figures to be made available to the public and included a provision stating the department’s incidental fee budget would not increase as a result of maintaining the site “in the indefinite future.”
The Senate also confirmed a new elections coordinator, an ASUO Constitution Court associate justice and a Department Finance Committee member.
Aaron Tuttle, a member of the College Democrats, was confirmed as elections coordinator.
Warnecke said impartiality is the most important consideration in appointing an elections coordinator and asked Tuttle if he would resign the post if there was proof he had a conflict of interest. Tuttle said he would if there was no other way to resolve the situation.
Soto asked if Dotters-Katz had any other applicants for the position or if Tuttle was “just filler.” Dotters-Katz said Tuttle was the first person asked to fill the position and he accepted. Soto was the only senator to abstain from the vote. All other senators voted for confirmation.
Eric Blaine, a second-year law student who was interviewed by hiring committees representing the administrations of both Dotters-Katz and former ASUO President Emily McLain, was appointed to the Constitution Court.
Demic Tipitino was appointed to a seat on the Department Finance Committee. Sen. Hailey Sheldon pointed out that Tipitino’s application said the ASUO was too liberal and in need of reform. “How far is this negativity going to go?” she asked. Tipitino said he speaks his mind but he is able to find common ground.
Tipitino was confirmed with 14 votes. Two senators abstained.
Sen. Nick Schultz sponsored a resolution written by student David Griffin to create an ASUO section on Blackboard. The student moderated forum would serve as a place to discuss ideas and gather student opinions, according to the resolution.
A newly formed rules committee will meet early next week to discuss the resolution.
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