The vice president of Associated Students of Colorado State University chairs both the Student Fee Review Board and senate, but next year’s vice president, Taylor Albaugh, would like to change that.

Albaugh plans to put the speaker pro tempore in charge of running ASCSU senate because she said she wants to focus more on the SFRB and faculty and administration relations.

“Senate is a huge responsibility as well as SFRB is a huge responsibility, and then the VP also wants to accomplish other things and all of them require a lot of attention,” Albaugh said. “A lot of the times the vice president has been spread thin.”

ASCSU Vice President Lance LiPuma said that when he was elected last spring, some of his advisers told him to look into having a tri-executive, where there would be two vice presidents and one would focus on SFRB while the other would focus on senate.

Brandon Earle, ASCSU speaker pro tempore, said it would make sense to have two vice presidents, one for senate and one for SFRB.

“It’s just too much work for one individual,” Earle said.

The speaker pro tempore position would take over the responsibility of running senate, according to Albaugh. Currently, the speaker pro tempore works right below the vice president and runs senate meetings when the vice president is not able to or if there is a conflict of interest, like senate talking about SFRB when the vice president also chairs SFRB.

“Right now the constitution and everything is set for (the speaker pro tempore) to handle it,” Albaugh said.

The speaker pro tempore is an elected position by the senate, Albaugh said. The speaker pro tempore will be elected at the first senate session of the new senate May 6.

LiPuma said one of the things he really wanted to do as vice president is chair senate, so he did not mind that responsibility. He also felt that, since the speaker pro tempore job description did not include running senate at the time, it was not something he could put on the speaker pro tempore.

“I think it would’ve been unfair to place that burden on someone,” LiPuma said.

According to LiPuma, the speaker pro tempore is set to be paid more under the Sydoriak/Albaugh administration next year in order for them to take on the responsibility of running senate. That increase in salary was passed by senate several weeks ago.

LiPuma said the speaker pro tempore can be anyone in the student body.

“A student can walk up and say ‘I want to run for the speaker pro tempore position’ and then that night they are voted on by the senate,” LiPuma said.

LiPuma said that since the speaker pro tempore is voted on by representatives elected by students, and they do not vote or primarily write legislation, it should not be an issue that this position is not elected by students.

“It’s not really a student representative position, it’s more of a caretaker or a managerial role,” LiPuma said.

Earle said that he has run two complete senate sessions on his own, but said that running senate is “pretty straightforward” and that the importance of the vice president in senate is representing the students.

“As the vice president, you are elected by the student body to represent them in the senate,” Earle said. “I just hope that she’ll still show up to senate meetings and make sure that the students’ voice is being heard.”

According to Albaugh, the vice president would still be available and able to step in and take control of senate if something controversial were to happen, such as an impeachment similar to the one that occurred this year.

The speaker pro tempore would still report to the vice president, according to LiPuma.

Albaugh said that student fees are becoming more important to students, so more time and energy needs to be dedicated to SFRB.

“There needs to be someone in there who can devote a lot of time to that and a lot of effort to make sure that student fees are being allocated accordingly and responsibly,” Albaugh said.

Albaugh said she would like to dedicate more time to work on faculty and administration relations.

“We have platforms going into this, and Jason and I have both said that we don’t make empty promises,” Albaugh said.

LiPuma said Albaugh would do well in voicing student concerns and opinions on committees like Faculty Council and the Committee on Teaching and Learning.

“I think being freed up, or having more time to engage in those conversations, would be very beneficial,” LiPuma said. “I think Taylor Albaugh has that expertise to do so.”

Collegian City Beat Reporter Sady Swanson can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan.