The Associated Students of Colorado State University convened Sept. 2 for the fourth session of the 56th senate.

Following the swearing in of new senators and associates, the senate ratified two returning members to the Board for Student Organization Funding, Nick Nye and Fender Kent.

The BSOF distributes a percentage of ASCSU’s student fees to registered student organizations as approved by the Board of Governors. They are currently looking for an additional member.

“I just want to clarify that we have one remaining BSOF spot, and the board right now is unanimously men, so we are looking for one woman to have some kind of background diversity within our board,” said Raymond Kappel, ASCSU’s director of finance.

The senate then moved to gallery input, which consisted of two speakers: Sen. Kieran Bakken and Sen. Yishai Trowbridge.

Trowbridge gave a speech alleging recent actions by the university have violated and ignored some of the bills and regulations made by ASCSU.

Trowbridge continued, describing how CSU planned to host several companies ASCSU demanded the university cut ties with in Resolution #5551 “Upholding the Principles of Community in Career Fairs” on Sept. 3.

“Tomorrow Woodward and Northrop Grumman will be on our campus,” Trowbridge said.

Woodward is an aerospace and industrial manufacturer based in Fort Collins. The company came under fire in 2024 when debris was found labeled with the company’s name at a bombing site from the Israel-Hamas war. Northrop Grumman is an aerospace and defense company that primarily contracts with the U.S. government.

“So long as this body continues to be ignored, nothing we do will matter,” Trowbridge said. “So long as we stay complicit, never demanding to see our democracy brought to action, we are just a bunch of children playing grown-up.”

Over the next few weeks Trowbridge said he will be writing a series of bills and resolutions calling for transparency, accountability and honesty from the university.

Bakken then brought attention to a new idea for ASCSU on allocating funding to a possible pilot program that would provide computers to students who need them.

“This is a super cool idea that I think is something we should definitely help out with,” Bakken said.

The senate then moved into the caucus chair elections that were postponed last session. The first election was held for the Accessibility Caucus chair.

Senator Liri Sananes was the only nominee for the position and was elected through secret ballot vote. The accessibility chair’s mission is to “promote legislation, programming and a sense of community to increase the accessibility for all students in the organization and student body,” according to the senate’s website.

There were no nominations for the Housing Caucus Chair, so the election was postponed.

Senator Haven Bohn was then elected unanimously as the Community Action Caucus chair.

The election of the Women’s and Social Justice Caucus chair followed, and Senator Kenzi Franks was elected via an oral vote.

There were no nominations for the Constitution Caucus chair and no legislation for old business, so the senate proceeded into new business.

There were four new pieces of legislation introduced this session. All legislation was sent to the University Affairs Committee following a period of Q&A.

The first piece of legislation was Bill #5602, “56th ASCSU Senate Bylaws,” written by Speaker of the Senate Ryer Roberts.

Soon after was the introduction of  Lex #5603, “Standardizing Senate Vacancy Procedures,” written by Bakken, who also serves as the recruitment and retention officer. The lex aims to “standardize the election of Senators and Associate Senators given vacancies across inactive councils and otherwise open seats to encourage a more comprehensive Senate.”

The next piece of legislation was Lex #56XX, “Codification of the ASCSU Oath of Office Reference Card.” The lex aims to codify the reference card as a resource to ASCSU officials when they are being sworn in.

Finally, Bill #5605, “Feast of the Food Trucks Reallocation,” was introduced. The bill aims to improve the allocation of funds within the department of Traditions and Programming by closing Feast of the Food Trucks.

To end the meeting, the senate went through reports. The judicial branch reported the final associate justice of the ASCSU Supreme Court will be ratified during next week’s meeting, while other branches shared events taking place that weekend.

ASCSU Senate will reconvene Sept. 9.

Reach Katya Arzubi at news@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.