The Associated Students of Colorado State University convened Jan. 21 for the 17th session of the 55th senate.
Following the swearing in of new senators and associates, two additional items were added to the session’s agenda: the ratification of new members on the Board for Student Organization Funding and Bill #5535, “Reallocating Contractual Savings.”
After a silent gallery input, three new members of the BSOF were sworn in.
Following ratifications, elections manager Emily Arnow shared a presentation for the upcoming ASCSU election cycle, which she said she believes is a “crucial year.”
Voter turnout has been following a downward trend over the years, Arnow said. Last year’s ASCSU election saw a voter turnout of 3.81%. Due to this low turnout, Arnow stressed the importance of the elections team’s efforts to foster student engagement throughout the entire election and shared a number of events planned to do so.
The Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches then proceeded to give their respective reports. Notably, Jared McGlothlin, Budgetary Affairs Committee chair, noted that ASCSU is running in a deficit of approximately $83,000.
“In the past couple of years, this hasn’t been as big of an issue because we built up a very large reserve balance over COVID,” McGlothin said.” However, this will probably be an issue that everyone in this organization has to probably take part in dealing with as we move through the budget process this year.”
Following McGlothlin’s remarks, the final member of the Elections Committee was ratified.
Moving into old business, edits to Lex #5562, “Intra-university Department Involvement Lex,” were presented to the senate. The Lex aims to “revise Articles II and V of the ASCSU Constitution to clearly distinguish the Intra-University department from the colleges and outline the rights of this department.”
Following discussion and debate, the bill was continued and sent to the Internal Affairs Committee for further review.
Moving into New Business, Bill #5534, “El Centro SOMOS Family and Community Celebration,” was presented to the senate. The bill seeks $8,500 dollars from the Senate Discretionary Fund in support of an event that celebrates graduating students. If passed, funds would be used to secure the Lory Student Center ballrooms and help cover the costs of necessary equipment and production.
Following Q&A, the bill was sent to the University Affairs and Budgetary Affairs committees for review.
Bill #5535, “Reallocating Contractual Savings,” was next read in full. The bill re-allocates excess funds from contracts with The New York Times, USA Today and Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation from the ASCSU General Fund. The funds will be split among ten separate line items.
Following Q&A, the bill was sent to the Budgetary Affairs and Internal Affairs committees for review.
ASCSU Senate will reconvene Jan. 29.
Reach Chloe Rios at news@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
