On Jan. 12, Speaker of the ASG Senate Tyris Jones cancelled ASG Senate due to a lack of “pressing items on the agenda,” the first time in at least four years that ASG Senate has been cancelled after ASG was already in session. In retaliation, some freshmen senators drew up the Safeguarding the Senate bill, which states that the ASG Speaker of the Senate would not be able to cancel or postpone a Senate meeting without two-thirds consent of the caucus whips.
The Daily is fully sympathetic to the disappointment of ASG President Claire Lew and of the freshmen senators over the Senate’s cancellation, but we do not believe the Safeguarding the Senate bill is the solution. If passed, the bill would only create more bureaucratic hoops within ASG and fail to address the core problem: the lack of substantive issues on the Senate agenda. The bill may make it more difficult to cancel Senate, but it would not encourage ASG to engage in more substantive debate.
In the weeks leading up to Senate’s cancellation, Senate had very few pressing items on the agenda during weekly meetings. It’s almost unfathomable that a representative body of the Northwestern student body would not have substantive issues to discuss, especially considering the wide range of constituents represented in ASG caucuses (the residence halls, fraternities/sororities, student groups, off-campus students). How is it possible that more than 40 senators can’t come up with enough discussion to merit a meeting? The recent uproar over the enforcement of Evanston’s “brothel law” illustrates how the complaints of off-campus students alone can fill an ASG agenda.
From the Daily’s standpoint, the most important purpose of ASG is to advocate for students to the administration. ASG Senate has always given students the opportunity to voice their opinions at the end of Senate meetings, but this has always been an ineffective forum for student comment, and ASG meetings are usually very poorly attended by students. ASG has the responsibility to provide better forums of discussion for students so that it can better represent the will of students to the administration. While The Daily agrees with Jones that ASG should maximize time efficiency and only hold meetings when necessary, these meetings should be necessary every week. NU is far from a perfect campus, and senators should take more initiative in proposing improvements in student life.
To be fair, Jones sent out an email to senators on the day of the meeting’s cancellation, challenging senators to speak to their constituents and brainstorm special Senate projects. We hope that Senate follows through on Jones’s challenge. The credibility and accountability of ASG Senate depend on it.
