The Academic Bill of Rights will come up for debate at Wednesday night’s weekly Associated Student Government Senate meeting.
Senators will have the chance to question Weinberg junior Ben Snyder, president of College Republicans, and Weinberg sophomore Neil Khare, College Republicans senator. The two co-authored the bill.
The bill is nearly identical of the Academic Bill of Rights, originally written by conservative pundit David Horowitz. Horowitz’s version can be found on the Web site www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org.
The Senate will also welcome a new leader as Patrick Keenan-Devlin, recently elected ASG president, is officially sworn in. Keenan-Devlin said he was looking forward to his upcoming term.
“I am just so excited about the new exec board and I would hope that the rest of the community joins me in that excitement because it is a new, fresh group of men and women,” said Keenan-Devlin, a Music junior. “None of them, except Dan Broadwell, has ever sat on exec board before.”
Though Keenan-Devlin said he knows the Senate often can be divided because senators represent different viewpoints, he said the democratic process always has the potential to lead to good legislation.
He said he expects heated discussion about the Academic Bill of Rights, but trusts the Senate to come to a good conclusion.
“You will see passions rise,” Keenan-Devlin said. “But in the end, I believe that the Senate will come to an appropriate resolution and hopefully will try its best tomorrow to listen to both sides and reflect the true opinion of the entire student body.”
Keenan-Devlin will also preside over a student government struggling to change its overly-political image, a need highlighted by accusations during last week’s election. Communication junior Howard W. Buffett, a candidate for Executive Vice President, withdrew from his race against Communication sophomore Jay Schumacher after accusing “ASG insiders” of corruption and trying to stop reform efforts.
During Winter Quarter, ASG created an ad-hoc committee on Student Government Reform to “identify the problem with ASG,” said committee chairman and former Speaker of the Senate Matt Hall, a Communication senior. At Wednesday’s meeting, the group plans to present some solutions to the Senate.
The solutions would address two main issues: the composition of the Senate, and the manner in which it passes bills.
Hall’s experience with ASG has led to his desire to reform the organization, he said.
” A lot of people think, ‘Oh you’re an insider so you’re going to biased towards the status quo,'” Hall said. “On the contrary, I’m an insider and that means I’m biased against the status quo. I’m going to be graduating in two months.
“I wouldn’t be spending my time on this if i didn’t fervently believe that things need to be changed.”
Reach Evan Hill at [email protected].
