The Associated Students of Colorado State University, the student government on campus, had their first Senate session of the year last night, during which they heard two bills, ratified new officers and listened to a presentation by ASCSU President Tristan Syron.
Bill to bring former Prime Minister moves to committee
A bill that would bring Australia’s former Prime Minister to CSU was sent to committee to be voted on in a future session.
Chief of Staff Zachary Vaishampayan presented the bill to give funds to host Julia Gillard, the first woman Prime Minister of Australia.
Vaishampayan said the bill would allocate $6,000 from the ASCSU General Discretionary Fund to bring Gillard to CSU in coordination with the Office of International Programs.
Although there is no set date, bringing noteworthy speakers to campus is a yearly tradition, and ASCSU has historically worked with the Office of International Programs to organize these events.
President Syron introduced a second bill to the floor, which aims to change the title and responsibilities of CJ Jewell, a graphic designer in the executive branch, due to his constraints of another job.
Syron’s bill was unanimously expedited and approved, with respective voting tallies of 25-0-0 and 24-0-0.
Now, the executive branch’s marketing department will split their original funding for the graphic design job into two identical positions. Jewell will now be referred to as deputy creative director to more accurately reflect the scaling back of his hours.
New legislative, executive officers sworn in
With a vote of 22-2-0, Alexandri Murray was sworn in as the interim parliamentarian. Murray will fill the role for the fall semester while elected parliamentarian Connor Cheadle completes an internship in Washington, D.C.
Gina McCrackin and Collin Metscher were unanimously sworn in as deputy of environmental affairs and as the ASCSU representative to the Lory Student Center Governing Board, respectively.
McCrackin and Metscher received high praise from people who worked closely with them.
Director of Environmental Affairs Andrea Fairfield said in the first week and a half of the semester she’s worked with McCrackin, she has been impressed.
“(She) has shown complete dedication to the department and has relentlessly brought up new ideas and suggestions on how we can better the department,” Fairfield said.
Syron described Metscher as passionate about LSC advisory board, saying Metscher emailed him about the position less than two hours after the position was posted.
President Syron speaks on plans for the semester
During executive reports, Syron gave the Senate a progress report of his accomplishments over the summer, talking about his work related to changing on-campus parking and replacing U+2 with Me+3.
Part of his work with U+2 also included changing the distribution of a satisfaction survey that originally was meant to be sent out in July.
“Most of you aren’t here in July,” Syron said. “We were able to move that to September, it goes out next week.”
Syron previously told The Collegian Me+3 would be mutually beneficial for everyone involved, giving students lower rental costs and opening up the rental market to non-students.
He also addressed what he has heard people say the positive effects of U+2 are.
“The number one thing people talk about is ‘U+2 stops parties,'” he said. “There’s absolutely no data that I have seen to suggest that.”
Collegian Assistant News Editor Stuart Smith can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @stuartsmithnews
