ASG could move campuswide Executive Board elections from spring to late Winter Quarter, under a bill proposed by President Jonathan Webber at Wednesday night’s Senate meeting.
Another bill presented by Webber, a Weinberg senior, and College Republicans senator Will Upton, a Weinberg junior, requests all Associated Student Government expenditures of more than $250 be presented to the Senate, in an effort to improve financial transparency.
The election bill would move voting for the president and the executive, student services, and academic vice presidents to the fifth week of Winter Quarter. The winners would be sworn in two weeks after the elections.
“As you know, I really love being ASG president, but I really, truly feel that for the long-term benefit of the organization, I’d be willing to give up two months of my term,” Webber told senators.
Currently, the ASG budget is passed during Winter Quarter, before the new Executive Board transitions in, leaving the new board with a budget set by the former administration. Webber said this is a problem he hopes the new bill will solve. He also hopes the new bill will narrow the transition time gap between the financial vice president, who is appointed and transitions in earlier, and the rest of the Executive Board. Splitting Spring Quarter between two administrations also makes it difficult for the new administration to finish projects.
“We get rolling, sort of, during Spring Quarter, but there’s just not enough time to get things going,” Webber said. “Then we come back in the fall and get started all over again.”
The second bill, which requires purchases of more than $250 to be presented before the entire Senate, would serve only to inform senators without offering actual voting power to the Senate. In recent years, ASG’s finances have been subject to scrutiny, including criticism that they spent thousands on retreats and dinners for ASG members in 2003-04. Webber said that following those incidents, disclosure was made a common courtesy, but the tradition was forgotten over time.
Both bills are set to be voted on at the next ASG meeting, after Thanksgiving break.
Another bill submitted two weeks ago by former College Feminists senator Arianne Urus was postponed at her request. The bill would increase the number of seats for senators from student groups to decrease friction between groups battling for positions in ASG.
After a town hall meeting on Nov. 6, Urus, a Weinberg junior, said she wanted to do further research on the total number of Senate seats, not just student group seats. Currently there are 48 Senate seats: 15 represent student groups; 14 are for residence halls and residential colleges; sororities and fraternities get 10 seats; eight are given to off-campus students; and one is for athletes. Some seats are highly sought-after while others are not, and Urus said she wanted more time to understand the inequality and might form a committee.
Student Services Vice President Nate West also presented results from his committee’s independent audit of the shuttle system’s timeliness. After a two-day audit, the committee found that the shuttles, although timely, did not show up a total of four times, said West, a Weinberg junior. He and his committee now plans to work with shuttle services to discuss the issues.
Reach Steph Yiu at [email protected].
