The ASUO Senate’s Rules Committee will present potential changes to the senate rules to the full body at tonight’s meeting and next week. The changes have been in discussion since the beginning of the summer.
Changes to the senate rules include removal of Oregon Revised Statutes and accounting indexes, shifting tasks from one position to another, and changing the way resolutions are heard.
The removal of Oregon Revised Statutes would omit references to Oregon Public Meeting Law from ASUO rules.
The job of the Senate Rules Committee is to reevaluate senate rules and propose amendments to Senate before Nov. 1, so that rules are applied to the rest of the academic year. All rule changes must be approved by the Constitution Court.
“Every year the body is different and has different people and the way we operate is a bit different,” said Sen. Lyzi Diamond, who sits on the committee. “Also there’s just a lot of stuff in senate rules that people don’t pay attention to.”
She cites indexing as a perfect example of something that has been ignored for years by the committee. Indexing essentially attempts to create a system for keeping track of special requests by giving each request an index number.
“Basically it’s a way to keep track of things and it’s not really practical. It’s a lot more work than it’s worth,” she said.
Diamond said the system is not used and the committee seeks to remove the section entirely.
Other potential changes include those related to resolutions and job descriptions. Changes in how Senate deals with resolutions look to make it so that Senate meetings run more smoothly and are not held up by unnecessarily debate. It will also allow resolutions to be amended by the
full Senate.
The changing of job roles include adding stipend distributions to the job of the treasurer, removing requirements of the Senate vice president to serve on the finance committee and increasing the number of rules that the ombudsperson enforces to hold senators accountable.
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ASUO Senate plans to reevaluate rules
Daily Emerald
October 20, 2009
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