The Associated Students of Colorado State University convened Aug. 28 for the third session of the 54th senate.
Following the executive and judicial reports, during which members of each branch updated senate on their respective work, senate moved to ratify a new member of the Board for Student Organization Funding.
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Jakye Nunley, the current executive chief of staff, was nominated for the open position and will assist the board in distributing a $175,000 annual budget across registered student organizations. Senate ratified Nunley with unanimous consent.
Senate then moved to elect the next Budgetary Affairs Committee chair. All pieces of legislation that request senate funding are reviewed by the Budgetary Affairs Committee, with committee meetings and processes headed by the chairperson.
In a light-hearted moment, Senator Enock Monanti received multiple nominations for the position and reluctantly accepted after refusing the first four. Senate then denied Monanti’s nomination, citing his reluctance to serve as chair. The position will remain vacant as a result.
The newest Women and Social Justice Caucus chair was then elected. Legislative caucuses are intended to give students outside of ASCSU input in the legislative process without being officially involved with the organization.
Senator Olivia Friske was nominated and subsequently elected with unanimous consent.
Moving into old business, Bill #5403, “54th Senate Job Descriptions,” was decided.
The legislation confirms the current iteration of the job descriptions for all senate officials, which must be reviewed annually. Notably, the proposed document reduced weekly office hour requirements for senators from the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering to two hours per week, as opposed to the typical five.
During gallery input, one physical sciences student denounced the bill, claiming it insults College of Engineering students and will prevent additional interest. Conversely, a graduate engineering student praised the legislation and said it would allow students to join the organization at a lower level of commitment. The legislation also proposed office hour requirement cuts for all senators, but the committee edit was expressly denied by the legislative author, Speaker of the Senate Hayden Taylor.
Senate then entered into committee of the whole, allowing senators to make edits to the legislation on the floor. A compromise was eventually reached, with Taylor agreeing to count time spent in weekly senate sessions as office hours. Also removed was the reduction in office hours for engineering students.
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The legislation then passed with unanimous consent.
Senate then considered Bill #5404, “Funding the ASCSU Pocket Pantry.”
The legislation requests $15,000 from the Senate Discretionary Fund in order to stock the department of basic needs’ pocket pantry program, which provides food items and hygiene products for CSU students.
The legislation will move to the legislative committees for additional review.
ASCSU senate will resume Sept. 4.
Reach Sam Hutton at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @Sam_Hut14.
