The ASUO Student Senate violated Oregon Public Meetings Law by holding Executive sessions at its Wednesday meeting without notifying the public or the media at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.
The three sessions were held to give the Senate opportunities to discuss
the nominations for president, vice president and ombudsman in privacy before voting. Senior James George was voted president, law student Colin Andries vice president and junior Stephanie Erickson ombudsman.
According to the Attorney General’s Public Records and Meetings Manual, at least 24 hours public notice must be given for all meetings of a governing body, including executive sessions — meetings which the public is barred from attending. Members of the media can stay for an executive session but may not take notes or report on any business conducted during the session.
“Notices for meetings that will include both an executive session and a non-executive session should give notice of both and state the statuary authority for the executive session,” the manual reads.
The Emerald was notified of the meeting but no mention was made of the executive sessions or reasons why executive sessions would be necessary.
Senator Toby Hill-Meyer was unaware that the executive sessions were a violation of the law, the senator said. Because they were held to discuss hiring practices, Hill-Meyer was under the impression that the executive sessions were “implicit,” the sentator said.
Public meetings law permits most of the hiring process to be conducted in an executive session but only “if specific statutory prerequisites have been met,” such as the 24-hour notice to the general public and to interested news media.
Andries, the newly elected Senate Vice President, would not comment on the situation but said he would review the law as soon as he returned from the Senate’s weekend retreat to Sunriver and handle the situation from there.
The Emerald was unable to contact any other Senators before their Friday afternoon departure to the popular Central Oregon resort. ASUO Accounting Coordinator Jennifer Creighton-Neiwert, who presided over the meeting, was also at Sunriver and unavailable for comment.
Once the officials had been elected, the Senate heard special requests and spending authorization requests from a number of campus organizations.
The Senate approved 15-1 a $959 spending authorization for the International Law Student Association and unanimously approved a request from Campus Recycling to transfer $5,591 from the incidental fee surplus to cover payroll expenses.
Also unanimously approved was a $16,362 surplus request from the Co-op Family Center. The center’s work study program has recently been
reclassified as off-campus rather than on-campus, making the center responsible for 50 percent of
its workstudy payroll rather than 25 percent.
About 40 men, women and
children were at the meeting to show support for the center, which provides childcare for University students. Had the transfer request not been granted, representatives said they would be forced to cut 10-15 student-teaching positions, which would be detrimental to the center’s existence.
A request from the ASUO Multi-Cultural Center to approve two new part-time positions and transfer money from surplus to cover the new payroll costs was not heard because the job descriptions were not in compliance with federal workstudy standards.
Steve Morozumi, programs adviser for the Multi-Cultural Center, said he would rewrite the job descriptions and make the request again at next week’s meeting.
Community activist Zachary Vishanoff was scheduled to make a
presentation to the Senate but said he was not expecting the meeting to last the four hours that it did and he decided to wait until next week’s meeting to make his presentation.
“Two hours and my ability to make my point eloquently is diminished,” he said. “I left that meeting thinking ‘no wonder nothing gets done around here.’”
The Senate will meet Oct. 13 to, among other things, elect a Treasurer, discuss the Multi-Cultural Center’s transfer request and hear Vishanoff’s presentation.

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