The ASUO Senate plans to debate three resolutions at its meeting tonight, the peak night for resolutions in a year in which their use has risen precipitously.
On the docket for tonight: resolutions on the Pacifica Forum, open-source textbooks and a bill currently before the U.S. Senate that seeks to grant students better financial aid.
Resolutions are meant to allow the Senate to make a public statement on behalf of the
student body.
The resolution over which there appears to be the least consensus is the one in support of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, a bill before the Senate that seeks to diminish the role of private banks in the student loan industry and make more students eligible for financial aid, among other things. The bill passed in the House on Sept. 17, 2009, but now needs the Senate’s vote to become law. 
Congressional Democrats support the bill, while Republicans oppose it, and at the Jan. 13 meeting, the ASUO debate split along similar lines. Conservative senators opposed the resolution, while left-leaning ones supported it.
The debate eventually broke down when senators realized neither side knew important details about the bill — how many students it would affect and whether it would make some ineligible for student loans.
Voting on the resolutions was postponed so that ASUO Vice President Getachew Kassa, the resolution’s co-author, and Sen. Demic Tipitino, a member of the College Republicans who opposed it, could gather more information about the bill.
The results of their fact-finding were surprising: Tipitino decided to support the resolution after talking to financial aid officials .
“Long term, I have some qualms with it from a political standpoint,” Tipitino said, later adding, “but, from a UO perspective, I think it will benefit students.”
Of Tipitino’s change of heart, Kassa said Tuesday, “That’s a strong indication that, come
tomorrow, it definitely will pass.”
Neither of the other two resolutions is likely to court much opposition. At its Jan. 20 meeting, the Senate moved unanimously to put the resolution asking the Pacifica Forum to leave the University up to a vote at tonight’s meeting, doing so to sustained applause.
Meanwhile, the open textbooks resolution, which would pledge the Senate’s support to free online textbooks that professors could edit, even received kind words from the Duck Store, which sells textbooks.
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