The Student Senate decided Wednesday night to postpone discussion of whether to approve the minutes of a June 13 meeting until the ASUO Constitution Court rules on a question of the June meeting’s validity.
On Tuesday, Sen. Neil Brown filed a grievance with the court challenging the minutes of the controversial meeting where no minutes were taken, a potential violation of the Oregon Public Meetings law. If the Senate is found to be in violation of the law, the entire meeting could be invalidated.
In other business, the Senate allocated $9,200 in surplus funds, appointed a new senator to represent graduate and law students, and nominated officers for the year to be voted on at the next meeting.
Kendell Tylee was approved as the ASUO elections coordinator and will organize the spring 2008 elections.
The meeting started with a debate about whether to even include discussion of Tylee’s nomination, given that the validity of the previous meeting was in question. Sen. Brown expressed concern that the votes of four senators who were appointed at the June 13 meeting could be meaningless should that meeting be deemed invalid by the court.
“My concern is that this executive appointment is not a time-sensitive matter,” Brown said. He suggested waiting until the next meeting, by which time the grievance should be resolved.
Sen. Kate Jones disagreed. “Kendell has already been doing the work for this position; we need to make her official,” Jones said.
“If the status of the meeting changed,” Brown said, “the status of the vote may change.”
ASUO Vice President Chii-San SunOwen said Tylee was doing a job necessary to increase voter turnout. “She’s on top of that. She’s making an outreach plan,” SunOwen said.
She told Brown he would be “stifling a lot of the program’s ability” if the vote were postponed.
A motion to remove the nomination from the meeting’s agenda failed by one vote.
Of the allocated funds, $4,050 went to Alternative Dispute Resolution Advocates. Representing the group, James Tschudy requested $300 for the ADRA fall speaker series, $200 for a fall mediation competition, $1,550 for a conference in October and $2,000 for a conference in Phoenix that will require purchasing airplane tickets.
Sen. Lee Warnecke asked if the group was raising funds for either trip. Tschudy said they were, and had already appointed someone to organize fundraising events.
“This is basically seed money,” Tschudy said, arguing that successful events early in the school year will allow greater fundraising opportunities later. The group is planning to sell coffee at night during finals week and is considering a “sumo boxing event” where students would dress in inflated suits and try to topple one another.
Another $900 went to the Native American Student Union for Indigenous Solidarity Day. Shalan Ryan described the event as “a day for us to put awareness out there to everyone that indigenous people are still around.”
Brandon Culbertson, also representing the group, said, “In the name of humanity and truth we should reject Columbus for all that he stands for.” The union’s special request form described the activity as an “anti-Columbus Day event.”
Sens. Nate Gulley and Billy Hatch described the event in previous years as “phenomenal” and “awesome.”
Two groups representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered students were allocated $2,500 for an honorarium for Keith Boykin to speak on campus. Boykin is a well-known activist and former aide in the Clinton administration.
“I’m giddy about this. I’m giddy,” Brown said.
Warnecke told the groups to do a great job of advertising the event so students would know about it.
The other allocated funds were $600 to the Multicultural Center to make up for a budget miscalculation, $250 for a Multicultural Center open house, and $900 for to book a DJ for an event called Weaving New Beginnings.
Sens. Athan Papailiou and Jones were both nominated for Senate president. Sen. Donnie Kim was the only nominee for vice president, Sens. Patrick Boye and Karen Trippe were nominated for ombudsman, and Kyle McKenzie was nominated for treasurer.
All nominations will be voted on at the next meeting.
Student Jonathan Bowers suggested the Senate pass a resolution expressing disapproval of tearing down McArthur Court. Senators were unsure of what kind of resolution they could pass expressing such an opinion, but advised Bowers to continue pursuing the matter.