The Associated Students of Colorado State University discussed a new bill regarding the organization’s social network and passed a bill affecting the executive branch’s job descriptions.

Bill 4911: Funding for ASCSU social network study

Senator Ethan Burshek presented a new bill that would pay for a social network study within ASCSU. This study would aim to discover and correct any lack of social or cultural cohesion within the organization.

The changes we make now will allow future generations of ASCSU to copy what we do.” -Senator Ethan Burshek

The study comes from the CSU Institute for Social Science Research.

“Basically, what this is is a survey put out to map social relationships and connections by which people interact and work together within an organization,” Burshek said. “There are no names involved in the final product; it’s just based on positions. So, where you are and where you work in student government.”

The final product, Burshek said, would present a map showing where certain individuals are able to connect within the organization.

“The thing that this endeavors to do is diagnose holes within that social cohesion within an organization,” Burshek said. 

Burshek said that, because the results are based on positions rather than people, this is information that can be used in future years of ASCSU.

“The changes we make now will allow future generations of ASCSU to copy what we do,” Burshek said.

Most senators who spoke up during a discussion of the bill showed support for it.

“I’d like to be the first one to say I really like the idea of the study,” Senator Kyle Hill said in support of the bill.

Some of the comments in regards to the bill related to a request for more information.

“I do find this bill very intriguing and interesting,” Senator Savanah Overturf said. “I do believe that having the researchers in earlier as discussed would be a good idea.”

The bill was sent to the Budgetary and Internal Affairs Committees.

Bill 4910: Amending the 2019-2020 Job Descriptions

In old business, the Senate voted on and passed a bill regarding ASCSU’s job descriptions.

The original bill added the position of the Deputy Director of Health to the staff and attempted to match tasks and work hours of certain positions to the proper compensation.

After going through committee discussions, the bill presented last Wednesday night had changes that would keep the pay at the original amounts currently given in job descriptions. 

A vote accepting the changes passed with an 18-16-1 count.

The full bill was passed with the changes with a 27-6-2 vote.

Chair Tristan Reyez said that changing hours or payment of certain positions in the executive branch might be part of a bigger discussion.

Burshek said the main reason the Senate would deny the request for payment and hour changes in the job descriptions would be if they didn’t trust the executive branch.

Senator Marlis Hazleton said she has no reason to mistrust the executive branch. However, she would like to have more information about what the branch is doing.

“I looked at the Senate report and there was nothing,” Hazleton said. “There was a bullet point or two. It was very vague and nothing that I can really elaborate on, which is really frustrating.”

Hill said that he also believes the executive branch needs to lay out more information for the Senate.

“This is a very simple request,” Hill said. “However, I do agree that the executive branch needs to layout more bullet points and more information regarding each position. I think that’s one of the reasons we’re going through this.”

Charlotte Lang can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @chartrickwrites.