The Associated Students of Colorado State University held their fifth senate session of the semester Sept. 14. ASCSU swore in three new senators and associate senators, heard from committee chairs and heard a new piece of legislation.

Budgetary Affairs Committee Chair Elizabeth Rencher, Internal Affairs Committee Chair Ariadne Athey and University Affairs Committee Chair Sammy Trout presented on what committees are, what they do and how to get involved. 

During executive reports, focus shifted toward matters such as the Halloween blood drive, the success of tailgating efforts at the football game Sept. 10 and the growing push to interact with the League of Women Voters in a measure to increase voter turnout.

Later in the meeting, the senate heard Lex 5206, “Amending Section 802 V B of the ASCSU Constitution,” which “aims to amend the process of the vote of confidence for the speaker of senate candidates.” The lex would change Section 802 V B of the ASCSU constitution to state that candidates for speaker of the senate must receive a vote of confidence from the elections committee instead of from the senate, and the vote would only be based on the candidates’ knowledge of parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order. 

The author, Senator Rithik Correa, presented the lex. Correa said the current voting process can lead to bias due to personal opinions within the senate.

Section 802 V A of the ASCSU constitution states candidates for speaker of the senate are only eligible to run if they have been in an organization that uses parliamentary procedure or can prove they know parliamentary procedure well enough to run senate. Correa talked about the process in the last election for speaker of the senate, saying some senators voted with political views in mind instead of focusing on whether or not the candidates knew parliamentary procedure well enough to manage senate.

According to Correa, when he ran for speaker of the senate in the last election, he wasn’t asked about parliamentary procedure when presented to the senate.

“It was a bad process,” Correa said. “It didn’t happen like it was supposed to be, how it was specified in the constitution. … My goal with this bill is to amend that process and transfer it to our future body.”

After presenting the lex, the senate moved into a question-and-answer period in which senators brought up questions of why the elections committee would be less biased than the senate. Correa said because the elections committee is appointed only weeks before the elections, “they are more likely to not have any personal biases against specific candidates, unlike senate.”

Senator Christian Kilburn said it’s important for the senate to feel comfortable with the speaker of the senate that is elected.

“The senate may elect someone who they believe is more likely to work well with the future senate whether they know who’s in that or not,” Kilburn said.

The lex will be sent to the Internal Affairs Committee.

To close out the meeting, Senator Mariana Sanchez, representing El Centro, reminded the senate of Latinx Heritage Month and brought awareness to upcoming plans regarding a concert outside the Lory Student Center featuring DJ Von Kiss. 

“It’s going to be so much fun,” Sanchez said.