The ASUO Senate on Wednesday night declined to condemn either the University’s decision to close down its Crisis Center hot line or the Eugene Police Department’s policy on the use of Taser stun guns, its members objecting to the wording of resolutions.
The Senate voted down the resolution against Taser use outright, but merely opted to delay a vote on the resolution regarding the Crisis Center so it could be rewritten with language more senators could comfortably support.
Many senators who voted against the resolutions said they did so because they were uncomfortable with the wording of clauses in the resolutions, which was meant to explain the reasons for passing them. They said they supported the basic intention of the resolutions, but didn’t want to endorse parts of their language.
“It’s heartfelt and I would have written the same thing in your position,” Sen. Sandy Weintraub said, referring to the use of words including “unparalleled” and “irreplaceable” to describe the Crisis Center. He said, though, he would not vote for a resolution that used those words.
However, that doesn’t mean none of the senators opposed the resolutions’ core intentions, nor that those objections did not play an important part in the resolutions’ failure.
“I don’t see this affecting the majority of students, still,” Sen. Chris Bocchicchio said. “I see this affecting 12 students (who work for the hot line).”
Bocchicchio also quashed suggestions that the Senate should pass the resolution because a referendum against the hot line’s closing passed in the early April ASUO election, invoking an earlier appearance at a Senate meeting by University Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes.
“This body, before Robin Holmes came in, was totally in support of keeping the Crisis Center,” Bocchicchio said, adding that Holmes’ explanation changed many senators’ minds. “With the vote (on the referendum), I feel like the students didn’t know a lot of those things as well. I feel like that’s why they elect us, to do that dirty work.”
The other resolution, which would have voiced the Senate’s support for a proposed city ordinance that would modify Eugene’s policy on Taser use, also met similar procedural objections. As with the Crisis Center resolution, some senators argued that it did not address the concerns of the majority of students. However, others objected to that idea.
“It’s a question of whether my lack of communication with police officers and any, sort of, tiff we might have, leads to me being Tased,” Sen. Tyler Griffin said.
But it, too, ultimately floundered because of concerns with its language, which its sponsor, community organizer Randy Prince, called “maybe a little bit too strident,” and Sen. Demic Tipitino labelled “a bit of a stretch, if not outrageously rude.”
In the end, though, it fell one vote short of escaping outright rejection, meaning it likely would still have stayed on the Senate’s docket for the coming week if its sponsor, Sen. Jairo Castaneda, had not left the meeting once it stretched beyond midnight.
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