The Walnut Room was full of new senators at Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting — many of whom were still learning the ropes.
At the beginning of the meeting, the public forum was completely used by former Chief of Staff Kerry Snodgrass and the Survivor Empowerment Alliance to discuss mandatory report forms. @@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/executive.php?a=12@@
Snodgrass was supported by former ASUO Vice President Maneesh Arora, former Environmental Advocate Sophie Luthin and junior Alex Sylvester. @@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Sophie*Luthin@@ @@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Alex*Sylvester@@
They are asking for anonymous report forms, which would keep the name of a survivor of sexual assault private and instead only report that an incident occurred. The group explained that 84 percent of students supported anonymous report forms in the ASUO earlier this term.
“This is not a new policy, it’s been around,” Sylvester said. “It’s a new protocol for responding to the policy.”
The rest of the meeting served as a learning experience for the newly elected senators. All returning senators were very supportive, and ASUO Senate President Harlan Mechling encouraged everyone to speak up and practice making motions. ASUO President Laura Hinman took a lot of pictures and mouthed the words, “I feel like a proud mom.” @@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/senate.php?a=30@@
The next order of business was to find people who will participate in summer senate. In the summer, six people must attend, however many people were reticent to volunteer.
“I will do it only if I have to,” ASUO Sen. Lamar Wise said.
After some arm twisting, six people were chosen: Matthew Miyamoto, Lindy Mabuya, Ian Needham, Amy Jones, Bryan Vanderpool and Parker Williams. @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Matthew+Miyamoto@@ @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Lindy+Mabuya@@ @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Amy+Jones@@ @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Bryan+Vanderpool+@@ @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Parker+Williams@@
Nominations were also made for summer senate officers, however they will not be voted on until next week.
After summer senate was squared away, Hinman had the chance to do her first Executive update to the body. In her first week, she worked on the hunger strike students were participating in to protest the termination of political science professor Ken DeBevoise. @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Ken+DeBevoise@@
“We are looking at the role students will play in these things so there won’t be any more hunger strikes,” Hinman said. “We need to find a healthy way to communicate our concerns to them.”
Hinman explained that she also intends to testify in front of the State Board of Higher Education about the proposed tuition increases.
“It is a 6.1 percent increase, and that is a lot,” Hinman said. @@http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/05/oregon_higher_education_offici_1.html@@
Finally, the body discussed a resolution to overhaul University Street. This would make it so it is more pedestrian friendly and add credit card meters instead of the current quarter machines. Most senators seemed in favor of the project and it passed without much discussion.