The Student Senate voted to include “viewpoint neutrality” in its rules Wednesday, a year after three student government officials attempted to defund a program based on their personal views.
Last year, the Oregon Commentator accused three members of not being viewpoint neutral and filed grievances against them, banning the members’ votes. Now the Student Senate has added the clause to its own rules, but not with full Senate support.
Senator Dallas Brown, the only vote against the rule changes, thought the clause didn’t belong in the Senate rules. The viewpoint neutrality rule says student government officials will remain bi-partisan and withhold personal bias while deciding funding or otherwise allocating the incidental fee.
“I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing to have in here, just based on the wording and the concept of it,” Brown said. He said there are already things in people’s heads, and he thought there was no way to ignore some personal views.
ASUO Vice President Kyla Coy, who attends Senate meetings to represent the Executive branch, said it’s important to follow the viewpoint neutrality process “to make sure the fee doesn’t come under attack” from student groups who think the fee is being misused.
No motion was made against the added viewpoint neutrality clause and senators voted 14-1-1, approving the rules changes.
This year’s ASUO Senate Rules Committee didn’t come up with the viewpoint neutrality clause. It was created by the rules committee last year, but wasn’t passed in the Senate. It failed because one senator voted no and the Senate wasn’t full enough at the time to have a two-thirds approval, a requirement when making changes to Senate rules.
Senators also voted to require “an appropriate notice” for senators who are expected to miss a weekly meeting. The Student Senate president now has the authority to decide when punishment is warranted and when a notice is adequate.