The Associated Students of Colorado State University have moved their weekly senate meeting to Zoom in order to continue plans and legislation for the rest of the semester. 

During this week’s meeting, the senate discussed new plans for elections and a lex about a potential process for removing senators. 

ASCSU President Ben Amundson also gave a brief update on the executive branch’s current goals.

“Our big thing right now is social media outreach,” Amundson said. “We want to make sure students know that there are services still offered to them online.”

An example of a resource, Amundson said, is the virtual engagement website, currently run by the Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement office. ASCSU has partnered with SLiCE to put together some of the events offered on the site, such as an upcoming Super Smash Bros. video game tournament.

Amundson also spoke about the recent mobile food pantry on campus.

“They ran out of food, so it was very successful and had a great turnout,” Amundson said. “A lot of ASCSU helped volunteer, and we did a lot of social media outreach with that to get the word out.”

ASCSU elections pushed to fall semester

Elections Manager Connor Cheadle updated the senate on recent decisions made regarding upcoming elections. It was decided for the elections to be held at the beginning of the upcoming fall semester.

“I’ll be reopening the application period for running probably sometime in the middle or late summer,” Cheadle said. “No rush on that right now. I’ll also be filling in some vacancies on the (elections) committee due to graduations.”

Elections are planned for the second week of the fall semester, starting on Aug. 31. 

I know this is a large change, so if you have questions, ask them, but we will definitely be coming out with more details as time goes on.” -Elections Manager Connor Cheadle

“Having an online election wasn’t going to be fair nor representative nor really feasible in a lot of different ways, and we decided that it would just be best if we push the election back and have a full-on, in-person, full-blown election just like we do every year, just in the fall,” Cheadle said. 

It’s uncertain whether senate terms will now be lasting longer than planned.

Cheadle said it’s up to the senators if they want to continue to meet and finish work or if they want to end their terms with this semester.

Speaker of the Senate Blake Alfred is working on an action plan with senate leadership to outline steps for the senate moving forward. Alfred plans to have this prepared within a week or two.

“I know this is a large change, so if you have questions, ask them, but we will definitely be coming out with more details as time goes on,” Cheadle said.

LEX 4903 – Senator Removal Rules of Procedure

Lex 4903’s second reading focused on ASCSU’s supreme court’s ability to waive a proposed case regarding senator removal from a college council.

Initially, changes made to the lex allowed the court to waive a proposed case if there was no doubt that an individual did not violate ASCSU’s codes. 

Similarly, courts would also be able to refuse to hear a case if there was no question in their mind of someone’s guilt, said Senator Marlis Hazleton.

“They hold the right to say they’re not going to hear the case and are just going to render a decision,” Hazleton said. 

Senator Peyton Dailey expressed concern over this clause, saying that it’s the court’s duty to hear a case and hear what happened in order to provide a true democratic system.

Dailey motioned to remove the clause from the lex. The motion passed.

After a 24-2-0 confidence vote, the lex was confirmed for a third and final reading in a future meeting. 

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