Associated Student Government failed to pass two pieces of emergency legislation Wednesday that would have endorsed either Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) or challenger Kellogg Prof. Allan Drebin at the first Senate meeting of Spring Quarter.
Senators decided to vote on the resolution supporting Drebin after they rejected endorsing Newman. But senators ultimately chose not to endorse either candidate by a vote of 25-27 against the Drebin resolution.
They cited several reasons for remaining neutral, despite urging from ASG President and Drebin campaigner Adam Humann to take action.
Some students argued that the Senate should not support either candidate because it could negatively affect ASG’s relationship with the winner. Others said they hadn’t had time to get constituents’ input because the resolution was emergency legislation.
“I think it was a mistake,” said Alianza Sen. Rachel Lopez, a Weinberg sophomore. “Anything I vote on should reflect (the views of) my constituency.”
One student said ASG did not have enough information to judge either candidate.
“I don’t see many of you (senators) asking about the issues,” said Madhuri Kommareddi, a Weinberg freshman who is working on Newman’s campaign. Kommareddi spoke in favor of Newman at the meeting.
At least one senator agreed with her.
“Newman and Drebin spoke for only a short time (to the Senate),” said Hari Srinivasan, a senator for the Foster-Walker Complex who voted against both bills. “I didn’t think we were in a position to better judge the candidates.”
Senators expressed reluctance to influence the student vote, but Humann said such concerns were unfounded – and surpassed by ASG’s responsibility to bring “critical” issues to students.
“Students don’t blindly follow ASG,” he said. “However, we do take the lead on critical issues. We realize what’s at stake here. The student body doesn’t.”
After the meeting, though, Humann said he was comforted that Senate’s vote reflected an opposition to endorsing either candidate, not to Drebin himself.
“The people who ideologically disagree with me on whether or not ASG should support anyone do support Drebin themselves in the election and I was happy to see that,” Humann said.
Humann sponsored a bill last quarter in support of Drebin, but ASG’s Rules Committee wouldn’t allow it to be debated on the Senate floor because of bias. He then offered the resolutions for either Drebin or Newman as a compromise so the legislation could reach Senate.
Also at the meeting, Senate passed a recommendation from Student Activities Finance Board alleging financial misconduct by the African-American Theater Ensemble. The recommendation requires the group to pay an outstanding bill of roughly $1,200 within four weeks.
AATE will pay $800 of the bill with money they have raised specifically for this purpose. Cecilia Saffold, then-president of AATE who signed the invoice for the bill, will be responsible for the rest.
Financial Vice President Carson Kuo said despite the fact that Saffold signed the invoice, the group should be responsible for paying part of the bill.
“(The responsibility) falls on the group for having poor structure to allow this to happen,” said Kuo, an Education junior. “By placing the account on one person, you ignore (those problems).”
No members of AATE were at the meeting to discuss the recommendation.
The Senate also elected three students to one-year terms on the judicial board: Michael Aktipis, Natasha Hill and Brian Yeado. The judicial board is responsible for overseeing the campuswide ASG elections April 10.
