ASUO Sen. Jena Langham@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Jena+Langham@@ made a rather harmless comment near the beginning of last Wednesday’s Senate meeting regarding University Vice President for Student Affairs Robin Holmes:
“(She) is here to help students,” she said, prompting a roomful of laughter.
She then said, “I’m incredibly embarrassed that that just happened in this room. I yield the floor.”
This scene, compounded with a week’s worth of tension, petitions and confusion, made a chance at reconciliation appear beyond gone. After senators made a few more comments on the EMU referendum, they continued with the typical meeting’s material. A couple of campus groups received money to go on conferences, resolutions’ wordings were disputed, they went on with their business.
EMU Board members Sen. Kaitlyn Lange@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Kaitlyn+Lange@@ and Dylan Scandalios@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Dylan+Scandalios@@ came forward during the time in the meeting scheduled for “Referendum Delay Resolution.” At around midnight (when our live blog decided to cut out — why, I can’t say for sure now), Lange started her speech that she intended to end with a Senate vote to override Eckstein’s decision to postpone the referendum.
And when that proposition’s legality was questioned, something beautiful happened.
After a four-hour negotiation period, Eckstein, ASUO Vice President Katie Taylor@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Katie+Taylor+@@ and senators were able to read, with palpable glee, a letter that presented their revised memo of understanding to various campus groups with hopes they would approve of its submission to Holmes.
The memo presented the demands of a united ASUO for the University administration in the renovations of the EMU. It also called for the new student referendum to take place during week 10 of fall term.
To fully understand how ridiculous it is that this negotiation took place, it is key to remember that a petition was filed just the day before to have Eckstein removed from office by University student Ben Ordonez.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Ordonez@@ What’s more, Ordonez, whose only ASUO tie was in managing Eckstein’s challenger Sinjin Carey’s@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Sinjin+Carey@@ campaign in the spring elections earlier this year, remained in the audience throughout the meeting — filtering out with the senators around 4:30 a.m.
Still more, shouting matches and other incredibly tense moments spouted up throughout, but senators still found ways to battle through the adversities that came with exhaustion. Sen. Lindy Mabuya,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Lindy+Mabuya@@ citing a concern she’s had for several weeks about not being listened to, left the meeting halfway through the discussions over that concern. Senate Chair Lamar Wise and others were able to convince her to return somehow before a vote was taken.
Langham and Taylor went at it an hour into the negotiation when Taylor thought it troubling that this discussion was not taking place with the 50 or so students who showed up at the start of the meeting — many of whom were in support of Eckstein’s call to postpone the vote.
“There were so many students in this room earlier … I don’t feel comfortable not including them,” Taylor said, prompting the back and forth with Langham.
“You have to look at everyone, not just one group,” Langham said.
The meat of this negotiation was a line-by-line hashing out where Eckstein would read a section from the original memo he tried to sign with Holmes, which was not agreed to, that provoked the postponement. Following, senators — who all had this document open on their computers, along with the new document that was receiving revisions — would discuss concerns they had and vote on these individual sections.
Finally, just before 4 a.m., the final memorandum was approved, and the group took a 15-minute recess so another group could write the letter. It went out to the Multicultural Center, the Women’s Center and the governing bodies of Fraternity and Sorority Life on Thursday. Those bodies returned approval. The letter was read, and the magnitude of that momentous occasion was reflected upon.
“I’ve never seen this happen before … I want to thank everybody,” said Eckstein, who is going on his third full year in the ASUO.
“We are taking the power of our branches together … the administration has been trying to separate people,” University senior Cimmeron Gillespie@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Cimmeron+Gillespie@@ said. Gillespie ran last year on the “Tuition is Too Damn High” ticket, wanting to use student power against the desires of the administration.
The precedent set last Wednesday is a strong one: In the face of exhaustion, difference of opinion and pressure of imminent action, a group of people who couldn’t be more opposing came together and found their similarities. And I sincerely wish that it is not forgotten.