Editor,
As an ASUNM senator, it is my responsibility to provide information to people who are unable to attend ASUNM meetings. Two weeks ago, a bill was introduced that would change the voting procedures for ASUNM to allow online voting and would put a polling station in Mesa Vista Hall. Some senators had reservations about the content of the bill. These worries seemed unwarranted, as the ad hoc committee, which created the online voting system, had presented its findings to the full Senate on more than one occasion.
The proper way to address issues in a bill is to extend one's hand to the opposition to negotiate a solution to the problem. The course of action taken by some senators was to ask the ASUNM adviser, Debbie Morris, to design a strategy where procedural maneuvers could be used to kill the legislation. During the Senate meeting, there was an endless line of senators whispering into Morris' ear. Her response to these inappropriate exchanges of information was to reply to them with a whisper. I do not understand why the Senate adviser would condone clandestine communication at a public meeting.
As a result of these events, the bills did not pass. Comments made in the Senate meeting and the Senate roll call were reported in the Daily Lobo. The article, along with pressure from students, changed the mood of the Senate, and the original bills passed.
Senators named in the article were angry their comments and the roll call appeared in the paper. If negotiations take place in a public forum, such as a Senate meeting, then anything that leaves the mouth of senators is fair game in the media. If anonymity is what they want, then they should have invited all senators to a private meeting to address concerns associated with the legislation.
One week after the vote, concerns with the changes were front and center. The second opportunity presented itself to reach out to supporters of online voting, but once again, some senators chose to act unilaterally.
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They went to our Senate adviser and had her rewrite legislation that nullified what was passed just seven days earlier. The bill was forced onto the Senate agenda without a Rules Committee hearing; a bill that was 14 pages in length with 53 changes to the election code. The full Senate was forced to vote minutes after it was placed on the table, with little time to analyze the implications of the adviser's bill. The work of the ad hoc committee was arbitrarily disregarded, without any contribution from half the Senate.
Even if the new legislation is adequate, some senators did not ask for help outside of their clique but instead used their access to information and sympathetic administrators to marginalize legitimate power of the other senators.
To prevent misunderstandings in the future, I would ask for negotiations to be held before the formal meeting, and I ask our adviser to offer advice in a transparent manner.
Jimmylee Gutierrez
ASUNM senator
