The Associated Students of Colorado State University addressed four new pieces of legislation. They also failed to pass a lex regarding senator removal from college councils.

Lex 4903: Senator Removal Rules of Procedure

During the lex’s third and final appearance at the senate, Senator Gemma Buhaenko and others urged for the senate to vote no on the lex.

The lex, which would move senator removal rights from college councils to ASCSU’s supreme court, failed to pass with a 14-10-5 vote. Because it’s a lex, it would have needed a two-thirds vote to pass.

Buhaenko said if college councils are competent enough to elect their own representatives, then they are competent enough to remove their representatives.

“This lex will take the right to remove senators away from people that a senator represents and give it to people who aren’t directly affected by the senator’s actions,” Buhaenko said.

Senator Kyle Hill spoke in support of the lex, claiming that it’s possible college councils may not be completely impartial when it comes to removing their senators. 

“I do not think that the sole responsibility of a removal, something big, should be just reliant on the council,” Hill said. 

Senate hears new legislation regarding fee refunds, stimulus checks, pocket pantry funding and more

Four other pieces of legislation were also brought to the senate. Three of these were sent to committee while one passed.

I really want the administration to see that the actions they took last semester clearly didn’t help, and there are a lot of things we have to do to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.” -Senator Joslyn Orji

The resolution passed was presented by Senator Joslyn Orji and asked for the senate and University to address the recent hate speech incident regarding a former CSU student.

“I’m really disappointed that with everything that’s going on right now with (the) coronavirus and school shutting down and everybody being displaced all of a sudden this had to happen,” Orji said. 

Orji said this resolution is asking to address that this happened again because of what happened in last semester’s blackface incident.

“I really want the administration to see that the actions they took last semester clearly didn’t help, and there are a lot of things we have to do to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again,” Orji said.

The resolution passed unanimously.

The senate also discussed a resolution suggesting that the CSU Board of Governors and Office of the President should compensate students for the fees lost as a result of COVID-19.

Hill, the author of the resolution, said that charging student fees at this time is not holding the University’s value of integrity to its utmost highest.

“Withholding the money from students who are struggling financially for services they can’t use is not ethical in any sort of way, and that is something that the students are very upset about,” Hill said. “I think that is something we need to take a good look at when going forward.”

The resolution was sent to the Budgetary and Internal Affairs committees.

Another resolution, presented by Senator Brooke Giffin, aims to encourage the University to use their powers and connections to put pressure on the federal government to redefine eligibility for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. 

This resolution was sent to the Internal Affairs Committee.

Senator Marlis Hazleton also presented a bill that asked for $15,000 to be used for restocking pocket pantries on campus and for adding a third pantry for the University apartments.

This bill was sent to the Budgetary and University Affairs committees.

Editor’s note: Joslyn Orji is an opinion columnist with The Collegian.

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