With President Lariviere’s upcoming $800 million bond and his intention to restructure the University administration, the ASUO felt a need to voice student views and concerns in regards to these changes.
However, instead of putting the Senate’s 20 minds together to talk about how they were going to voice their concerns in last Wednesday’s meeting, they decided to create an “ad-hoc committee” of four members to formulate a way to talk about it. That group would then discuss what they discussed to the rest of the Senate, and then they’d discuss their concerns with the administration.
This brings up a question: Is our Senate incapable of having a basic discussion?
Sen. Evan Thomas held a similar concern: “I don’t know how I feel about you creating committees; you should just talk to each other,” he said.
Isn’t that what a student Senate does at meetings — talk?
Typically, smaller committees are formed to handle things that are continuous and require a lot of individual time. For example, some committees in the ASUO include the academics committee, the finance committee, and the rules committee.
These committees are important because they allow senators to focus on a big pool of issues within those areas. They can meet with a small group of senators to find and address a large group of issues in their focus, and bring those to the Senate. However, the difference between this committee and the ones previously mentioned is that the four members will talk about how they are going to talk to administrators, which is only one issue.
Is this something they are going to continue to do? Creating a committee to do the think-work that should be actively done by all 20 members of the group is both insufficient and a poor management of time. They will still have to propose their opinions to the larger group, that larger group will still have to tussle and fight over what everyone thinks about it, and then, they will end up taking their views to the administration. And while they may have an impact on the future of the administration, they still aren’t making the changes themselves. Ultimately they’re just proposing their concerns.
A student government that distributes $12 million in incidental fee money and gets paid to make decisions should be capable of addressing issues that arise throughout the year without having to create impromptu groups to talk about how to talk about things with the rest of the Senate. They should do what they can to be one functioning body — or at least capable of coming to some sort of reasonable conclusion without having to jump through hoops.
The ASUO must remain relatively cohesive to most appropriately represent the student body. Branching out into “ad-hoc” committees is just a waste of time.
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Editorial: ASUO’s creation of committee to discuss decision is farcical
Daily Emerald
October 17, 2010
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