With all of the 2011 ASUO elections votes tallied and open positions filled, incoming and continuing members are looking toward May 25, when a new president, vice president and a polarized Senate will assume power.
Several Senate motions require a two-thirds vote for approval, meaning 14 of the 20 senators must vote the same. Because 13 senators were elected together on the same slate in the recent election, they would need to sway just one opposing senator’s vote to hold quorum, authorize the president to remove a Constitution Court justice, approve any non-finance resolution and vote on procedural options, such as deadlines for major program budgets and appeals from campus groups.
For example, if the 2010-11 Reality Check slate had wielded a two-thirds supermajority while voting whether to overturn ASUO President Amelie Rousseau’s veto of the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee budget because of its lack of funds for the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group, the overturn would have succeeded. Similarly, if next year’s Senate gains one more Ben & Katie vote, it could approve budgets for groups like OSPIRG if all members vote together.
In past years, upwards of seven senators have resigned in the course of a year. If one senator from outside the Ben & Katie slate resigns, the president could push the Ben & Katie slate into a two-thirds supermajority, given that the president has the power to appoint a replacement. These appointments require confirmation with a simple majority from the Senate, so the slate could approve new members even with substantial opposition.
Sen. Brianna Woodside-Gomez, a senator from Reality Check elected to a two-year term in the 2010-11 election, said she is upset by the power the 13-person voting bloc could have during next year’s session. Woodside-Gomez led the controversial OSPIRG negotiations this year and handled the issue at all points in the process, from the initial hearing to the final budget that funded the group.
“Honestly, it’s not going to really matter that people that disagree with them,” Woodside-Gomez said. “Senate this year had a majority of people elected on the other slate. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen when they have a majority of Senate on their side — whatever they want to happen is going to happen.”
The 2011-12 race, in which all open committee positions and contested Senate seats went to candidates on the same slate as the Executive, ended with an almost opposite result as last year’s, when Reality Check — the slate with members who supported Students United — swept all of the open committee positions and contested Senate seats. Five of these Senate seats were elected to two-year spots and will remain for this coming year.
Students United, the slate that opposed Ben & Katie, was able to plant two candidates in the Senate in the recent election, though they ran unopposed.
Five of the 13 Ben & Katie senators were appointed to a position on Senate this past year and won a seat on Senate for next year. One of them, Sen. Molly Bacon, was appointed to the business seat as a pre-business administration major in February and was elected to represent AAA and journalism majors in the recent election.
Bacon said she looks forward to working with a Senate comprising old and new faces and ideas.
“Many current senators are returning next year as well,” Bacon said. “And I think this will bring a good balance between new voices and those returning.”
The senator praised the current Senate for making strides on a number of issues and has high hopes for the incoming body.
“I think the Senate this year has done a lot of great work, and I congratulate them all on their hard efforts,” Bacon said. “I look forward to ending this year with the current Senate and starting fresh next year as well.”
Sen. Emma Newman, another of the five returning members of the Ben & Katie slate, also said she would like to see the Senate become more than just a financial body.
“I am excited to work with next year’s Senate to go beyond our budgetary responsibilities and work on student issues that are not specifically tied into the budgets,” Newman said.
This year, when Senate debated over smaller details of groups’ requests, the continuing senator said those groups became frustrated by the process, and she hopes the new Senate can avoid incensing its constituents.
“I hope that we can work as a team that presents ourselves as very professional and sympathetic to students,” Newman said.
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