The Associated Students of Colorado State University convened Sept. 9 for the fifth session of the 56th senate.
Following the swearing in of new senators and associates, student Eleanore Stanton was sworn in as the last associate justice for the ASCSU Supreme Court this year.
“One of my main goals is to make the sure the student body is more informed about the judicial branch and what we are able to bring to the student body,” Stanton said.
Following a 10-minute Q&A session, Stanton was elected via voice vote to fill the last position of the ASCSU judicial branch.
The senate then moved into gallery input, where ASCSU Student Body President Victoria Quesada-Stoner shared a message on behalf of a student who wished to stay anonymous.
The unnamed student called for CSU to have a “people’s council” that would work in conjunction with the student government. The student wrote the alliance would create a system that would better serve the university as a “two-row treaty.”
“This people’s council must hold its own authority, structure, leadership and decision-making process alongside ASCSU,” the student’s statement read. “The two-row treaty provides a model: two vessels traveling the same river, each carrying its own law, languages, traditions and responsibilities — and neither vessel steers the other.”
Next for gallery input was associate justice and recent Ram Welcome Leader Nevaeh Greene, who said she witnessed an event take place during CSU’s welcome week involving two Ram Welcome leaders and two students.
One responsibility of the welcome leaders is to wake up new students in the dorms at 7 a.m. for icebreakers and community building, according to Greene. In doing so, she said, they are not allowed to touch student’s doors.
“A couple of students came up to me and told me that a couple of Ram Welcome leaders were banging on their doors and demanding they ‘Get the f— out here,’ which is ridiculous,” Greene said. “They’re having two adult men banging on their door, yelling their names at 7 o’clock in the morning, and that is terrifying for two assigned-female-at-birth freshman.”
Greene said she had reported the incident to the proper authorities, but nothing was done. She added that the two first-years refused to attend Ram Welcome events such as Ramapolooza because they felt unsafe by the situation.
“The fight is not over,” Greene said. “We have to still stand up for people and still fight for what we believe in.”
Next on the agenda was campus community reports and guest speakers, for which there were none.
Again, there were no nominations for the elections of the Housing and Basic Needs Caucus and the Constitution Caucus chairs.
The elections for these chairs were consequently postponed to next week’s meeting.
“If you guys have any questions at all about those caucuses and want to talk about what it would look like to be a chair, come and have a conversation with myself or Estevan (Vega),” Speaker of the Senate Ryer Roberts said. Vega is ASCSU Senate’s speaker pro tempore.
Additionally, Accessibility Caucus Chair Sen. Liri Sananes emphasized both chairs may be held by any student, even if they are not already a part of ASCSU.
The senate had no old business or new business to attend to, so they moved into reports for their respective branches, which consisted of miscellaneous reminders for senate members in addition to committee meetings and times.
ASCSU Senate will reconvene Sept. 16.
Reach Katya Arzubi at news@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
