After a long night of contentious debate, the ASUO Senate voted down a resolution Wednesday night that would have asked the Pacific Forum to leave campus.
The vote was seven for, 11 against, one abstaining.
Because the meeting ended after midnight, the Emerald’s press deadline
interfered with further coverage.
The Senate also voted at its weekly meeting to support a measure aimed at giving professors lower-cost options for textbooks.
The vote was on a resolution passed unanimously with little discussion.
The resolution supported efforts by the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group and others in support of open-source textbooks, free digital texts that professors can edit and change to suit their classes.
OSPIRG campaign leader Maneesh Arora spoke in favor of the resolution,
saying his group was already making efforts to find the right open textbooks for University professors to use instead of high-priced textbooks.
After encouraging words from the University bookstore at its last meeting, the Senate did not discuss the resolution, voting to pass it unanimously with 17 votes in support and none against.
Arora said the resolution will affect professors’ decisions on textbooks. “It just shows professors that students support this and it’s good for students,” he said.
The Senate also debated a resolution in support of removing the Pacifica Forum from campus.
Many students and community members turned up to speak in favor of that resolution, and one turned up to oppose it. There was, however, no vote on that resolution before press time.
In addition to those two resolutions, the Senate opted against discussing a resolution in support of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Sen. Mercedes White Calf moved to put the resolution up for discussion, but senators opted against doing so in order to avoid prolonging the meeting into the night. As of press time, the Senate had yet to discuss half of the items on its agenda.
The Senate also allocated $12,157 in funding to student groups.
The funds went to support the production of two student publications, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association’s HuaFeng and the Oregon Commentator, as well as the Chinese Students and Scholars Association’s Chinese New Year Celebration and a dance exhibition for the Dance Oregon group.
The Senate denied one funding request, that of the a cappella group On the Rocks, which asked for $11,463 to fund a tour of the East Coast. That request was tabled so the group could find lower estimates for the cost of airfare and lodging.
Read more coverage of the Pacifica Forum resolution outcome in Friday’s Emerald.
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