The Associated Students of Colorado State University convened Sept. 23 for the seventh session of the 56th Senate.
Following the swearing in of new senators and associates, the ratification of the ASCSU artificial intelligence literacy coordinator position was discussed.
ASCSU Vice President Ben Gregg and Assistant Director for Student Government Julia Prat helped formulate the job description alongside CSU student Abraham Mapatano, who was nominated for the role and presented to the senate by members of the executive branch. According to the position’s job description, the AI literacy coordinator’s duty is to lead ASCSU’s Responsible AI Literacy Initiative to help CSU students use AI more efficiently and sensibly. The role, which is a volunteer position, will exist under the department of student voice and belonging.
During a 10-minute period of Q&A regarding the position, Sen. Yishai Trowbridge and Sen. Jack Pendleton, chair of the Internal Affairs Committee, both said that Mapatano fulfilling the role would be a conflict of interest as he plans to pursue an internship with an AI company.
“The conflict of interest would be the idea that (Mapatano) would not be able to reliably educate people on AI due to the fact that he feels personally some way about AI,” Trowbridge said.
Tensions arose during the ratification process in regard to whether questions asked by senators were appropriate and related to the interview process of Mapatano.
“In my two years of ASCSU, I’ve never seen a ratification like this,” Gregg said. “This is much more of a specialized position that came from the idea of a project and us more so wanting to formalize it for Abe.”
Following the discussion, a vote was held, and Mapatano was ratified.
Next, the senate ratified the new Associate Director of Traditions and Programming Nick Nye.
Director of Traditions and Programming Alexander Fiduccia said the role would follow a structure similar to an assistant and would entail helping with tabling and smaller events related to student involvement with CSU traditions.
Nye was ratified for the position through a placard vote.
The Senate then moved into gallery input, during which Pendleton spoke first. Pendleton drew attention to a recent CSU Turning Point USA chapter event he said had a harmful title.
“Last week, a Turning Point USA event on CSU’s West Lawn ran under the banner that read ‘Islam isn’t compatible with America,’” Pendleton said. “It was approved by CSU, and there was no public statement issued about it.”
Pendleton then pointed to what he said was a similar situation that involved religious hate speech and was handled differently by CSU.
“Four days ago, when CSU at Canvas Stadium chanted ‘F the Mormons’ at the (Brigham Young University) football game, within an hour, CSU had a statement in the hands of people in the press box,” Pendleton said.
The Senate then moved into the ratification of ASCSU Vice President Ben Gregg.
Following the ratification, the election of the Housing and Basic Needs Caucus chair was held.
Associate Sen. Enock Monanti was self-nominated and elected for the position via placard vote.
The Constitution Caucus chair had no nominations again, so the election was postponed to next week.
The Senate then moved into new business, which consisted of one resolution and bill.
The first piece of legislation was Resolution #5609, “Renewing Support for AAUP — Fort Collins’ Board of Governors Postcard Initiative,” which was written by Sen. BrookeLyn Reese.
“(The American Association of University Professors) is the on-campus union for our professors,” Reese said. “This initiative just kind of pushes forth, like, shared governance and making sure we’re maintaining faculty and student voices.”
The resolution was expedited and the Senate entered a 30-minute discussion and debate period before passing the resolution by placard vote.
Next, the Senate was presented with Bill #5609, “Funding the Lavendar Cabinet,” which was written by Reese and Sen. Blake Simpson.
This bill was made to allocate $14,000 from the ASCSU Discretionary Fund to the Pride Resource Center’s Lavender Cabinet, which provides gender affirming care and basic needs items to CSU community members for free. If passed, the bill intends to fund the Lavender Cabinet through the fall 2028 semester.
Following a period of Q&A, Bill #5609 was sent to all committees for further review.
During Old Business, Bill #5605, “Feast of the Food Trucks Reallocation,” was revisited. According to the bill’s language, it aims to “better allocate the finances within the department of Traditions and Programming by ending our Feast of the Food Trucks Program.”
Following committee edits, the bill passed via oral vote.
Lastly was Bill #5608, “Seed Grant Bill Eligibility Amendment,” which was written by Pendleton. The amendment would allow new student organizations to apply for funds within the first two years of their creation date and replace the fixed registered student organization creation cut-off date.
Bill #5608 passed via oral vote.
All committees and branches then presented their reports to Senate.
ASCSU Senate will reconvene Sept. 30.
Reach Katya Arzubi at news@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
