Changes on a large scale sometimes start with a smaller goal achieved.
After shared governance on campus became a major objective of the protests earlier this term, the ASUO took a cold, hard look at the way its own operation runs. Beginning this summer, ASUO programs will have more of a say in how student government is run.
Modifications to the Green Tape Notebook, the manual that dictates rules and procedures of the ASUO, will open up three areas of authority to the ASUO Programs Council for next year. When the newest edition of the notebook gets published, the council will be able to work with the Executive to make appointments to University committees, add proposals, referendums and amendments to elections ballots, and have the same access to policy change as does the ASUO Executive.
“We wanted to develop a way to create or give more authority to another body that we felt was representative of a greater degree of students,” former ASUO President Wylie Chen said. “By providing the Programs Council with decision-making authority, we would be providing greater shared governance within the ASUO.”
The protest in April that called for membership in the Worker Rights Consortium also stirred discussion about shared governance on campus and allowing students to have more power in voting on issues such as the WRC. Giving the Programs Council a say in the ASUO is one of the first steps toward this goal.
The Programs Council comprises more than 90 representatives from both recognized and registered student groups on campus. Recognized groups receive funding from the incidental fee and act as voting members within the council; registered groups do not receive funding and cannot vote.
At current operation — before the changes take effect — the council is only able to discuss issues and recommend things to the ASUO Executive. It does not have the authority to act upon any of its recommendations.
Human Rights Alliance member Randy Newnham said it is definitely a first step toward the goal of sharing power around the campus.
“It diffuses power from a few people to many, and I think that the Programs Council is a good place to start,” he said. “Most people that are really, really concerned about student government, and how the University is run in general, are in programs.”
Former ASUO Programs Administrator Sydney Abbate said the council was very excited about the prospect of more authority.
“There’s always this issue of what is our purpose here,” she said. “Programs Council has the opportunity to be a very strong governing body on this campus.”
With the three new options open to the Programs Council, they will be able to begin exerting more power on campus.
Next year, the Programs Council will be the newest method to place measures on the ballot. Currently there are three ways to propose initiatives. The measure may go through student senate or the executive office, or someone may petition by gathering student signatures. For the Programs Council to authorize an initiative, they must vote two-thirds in favor of doing so.
The second power granted to the Programs Council is that of assisting the Executive in making appointments to various University committees. There are more than 50 committees around campus, Chen said, many needing students to participate. Before the job of placing those students rested solely on the Executive’s back. It was a big job that sometimes the Executive could not complete.
“All of those student seats that need to be filled come through the ASUO,” Chen said. “A lot of times, they don’t all get filled.”
Letting the Programs Council work hand in hand with the ASUO University Affairs coordinator will lessen the workload for the Executive which will in turn make sure more seats get filled.
“It ensures that the ASUO and the Programs Council work together to make appointments,” Chen said.
A third power is policy change. There are specific guidelines governing the ASUO as a whole that the Executive has jurisdiction to change. With the revisions of the Green Tape Notebook, the Programs Council will have the opportunity to change the same rules as the Executive.
However, Chen said, rules are ever rarely changed. Allowing the Programs Council to have the same access to changing policy as the Executive is not a huge push for power; rather it is more of a symbolic action.
“It’s more of a respect given … to a certain council, such as that one, in order to give them more power,” Chen explained.
Although the Executive still has the opportunity to veto any policy changes, the Programs Council may override the veto if four-fifths of voting members vote to do so.
Ideas about changing the structure of the Programs Council began forming winter term, but they were not written until spring term. When the Green Tape Notebook comes out this summer, the rules will be in place and thus be effective.
“Once it actually becomes assimilated into the running of student government, I think it will be successful because it will really give students a whole other voice to kind of speak to the campus,” Abbate said.