ASUO senators unanimously confirmed Megan Benevento, nominee for Constitution Court, while holding off making a decision to confirm nominee Katherine Du Pont to the vacant ASUO Senate Seat 1.
All nominees were appointed by ASUO President Amelie Rousseau.
While senators also approved four special requests and unanimously approved the final six rule change proposals from its rules committee, most of the conflict came from Rousseau’s appointment of Du Pont.
Du Pont, a Northwest Christian University transfer, originally applied for the vacant ASUO Senate Seat 6, which included a position on the EMU Board of Directors; however, Rousseau ultimately chose Du Pont for Seat 1, which is the seat that participates on the Programs Finance Committee. Du Pont said during the confirmation that she was fine with this change in position because she wanted to represent University students.
“I’m here to serve the students,” Du Pont said. “(It) doesn’t matter what position I’m in; I’m here to serve.”
Some senators were concerned about Du Pont’s level of commitment to Senate due to her current obligations as a student and working in the Student Recreation Center. Sen. Chris Bocchicchio said that while he thought she would perform well on the Programs Finance Committee, he thought attending Senate meetings would add too much additional pressure.
“PFC is the most rigorous (committee); if you’re working two jobs, my worry is burnout,” Bocchicchio said. “From what I can see here, I’m worried we may lose you during the budget season.”
Du Pont prefaced these fears in her initial remarks to the senators. She said that while, as a student, class work is the top priority, ASUO work would be the next level.
“School comes first, obviously; this position would be my second priority,” Du Pont said.
However, senators still took issue with this. Sen. Brianna Woodside-Gomez wanted to make it clear; there are times when Senate must take top priority.
“Homework is never a reason to miss Senate or (a) finance retreat. Do you have the time management skills to make (school) a priority, but also get your work done?” Woodside-Gomez asked Du Pont.
At the end of the discussion, ASUO did not make a motion to approve Du Pont’s appointment.
A majority of the first half of the meeting was focused on budgetary issues with one special request from the International Student Association to pay for a conference for graduate students studying romance languages.
Since several senators found budget inconsistencies in the ISA special request, the meeting was bogged down with budget issues. One major issue was that the group had a large amount of money in their account already and were requesting more money for the conference.
“You have $14,000; that’s like a wealthy person going out for a needy scholarship,” Sen. Kaitlyn Lange said, referring to how much ISA fundraised before asking for the special request.
However, some senators, including Bocchicchio, pointed out that the group had raised over half of the amount for the purpose of the conference alone while some groups get approved with much lower relative amounts of fundraising.
“They’ve already fundraised a large part of this; I see students going above and beyond to put this together,” Bocchicchio said. “I do believe this group will return whatever they don’t use.”
The senators approved this special request, with the condition the ISA meet with a finance senator to go through their budget.
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Senators spent 20 minutes discussing the smoking ban, which ASUO President Amelie Rousseau announced last week that she received a $800,000 grant from PacificSource Health Plans to begin implementing the ban.
Rousseau said the ban is not intended to infringe on students’ rights but to protect students and staff from second-hand smoke. The ban would go into effect in fall 2012. Rousseau said campus is a workplace and the school should offer protection for its workers.
The senators had mixed reactions to Rousseau’s proposal.
Sen. Brianna Woodside-Gomez agreed with the idea of a smoke-free campus but said she doesn’t think it’s realistic.
Meanwhile, Sen. Brian Powell said there is no such thing as a right to smoke and suggested designated smoking areas around campus.
Sen. Grace Hochstatter suggested that phasing out smoking rather than banning it all at once would be more effective. She said it would be inconsiderate to not realize the University is a workplace and the average workplace has designated smoking areas.
Sen. Max Barkley said it would be more profitable to concentrate on campus nutrition rather than a smoking ban.
Sen. Evan Thomas said he was strongly against the ban.
Sen. Chris Bocchicchio and University Health Coordinator Paula Staight said the right to smoke and the right to clean air were clashing. Bocchicchio suggested there should be lots of signs indicating designated smoking areas.
Sen. Marissa Garcia said the ban might push people off campus, where they would leave cigarette butts in surrounding neighborhoods.
Sen. Kaitlyn Lange said she supported the ban.
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