Liveblogging ASG Senate – Feb. 16

8:00 – Don’t forget – ASG Town Hall meeting tomorrow in the Union Connections Lounge from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.  Free food and your chance to have your voice heard in person.

7:59 – Lots of new legislation that’ll be voted on next week.  I’ll be liveblogging once again.

7:57 – Resolution 8 passes by unanimous consent.

7:52  – “They’re already basically doing it illegally,” says Sen. McCollum, speaking in favor of the resolution.

7:51  – Pres. Bookhout speaks in favor of Resolution 8, which changes the time the executives are sworn in.

They’re supposed to be sworn in on Dead Day but haven’t been in quite a while.  I thought about filing something last year, just to give judiciary something to do.

7:50– Resolution 7 passes unanimously, 29 – 0.  (Some senators walked out of the meeting early)

7:40  – Pres. Bookhout speaks on Resolution 7, which would have the ASG Senate PR Committee sent a letter of support for the implementation of Fall Break.

It will be amendment so that it does not specify dates and support either a October or a November break.

7:38 – Resolution 6 passes, 30 – 1, with only Sen. Stewart in the negative.  The student body at large will vote on it later in the semester.  It would add an academic committee and a student life committee to ASG.

7:36 – Sen. McCollum also speaks in favor of the resolution.  “It would be a great opportunity for students outside of ASG to get involved.  If regular students were involved, they would have full voting rights.”

7:35 – Sen. Johannassen says you don’t have to be a senator to join an ASG committee.  It wouldn’t be hard to fill these committees.

7:34– Chair Lippert uses Sen. Stewart’s own words to ask if we shouldn’t represent students on an academic committee.  Sen. Stewart is rendered speechless.

7:33  – Sen. Stewart says there are already too many people on multiple committees.

7:31 – A member of the PR Committee says his committee’s role as a catch-all makes it difficult to concentrate on PR.  He is in favor of this bill.

7:29 – Sen. Johannassen prefaces her presentation by saying that delivering a committee report doesn’t necessarily mean the presenter agrees with everything in it.  So I guess we know what that means.

The Constitution & Code Committee recommended against passing the resolution because the committees are vague, and it’s difficult to fill all the committees already.

7:27– Chair Lippert speaks in favor of Resolution 6, which would add two new senate committees – one for academics and one for campus life.  She says too many issues fall through the cracks and aren’t addressed by existing committees.  The Press Relations Committee has been used as a catch-all.

7:26 – Bill 5 passes, 17 – 13.  ASG Presidents must now serve in ASG during the semester prior to their election.  Unless the CLCE lets them, of course.

7:19 – The amendment fails, 17 – 15. 

7:17 – Sen. LaRocca speaks in favor of the amendment, saying “some experience is better than none.  This is a pretty significant step.”

7:15– Sen. Johannassen says “if you weren’t in ASG the previous semester, you’re not going to know how to respond when students ask you questions.”

7:13 – Sen. Stewart says “we don’t want this to turn into a good-old boys club.  But we want to make sure whoever goes up has some sort of knowledge.”  Then he rambles on a bit with some folksy sayings.

7:09– Chair Lippert also speaks against the amendment.  “‘Immediatly’ is the key to this bill.  There needs to be some sort of time frame.”

Lippert says candidates can appeal to the CLCE, and the CLCE can override any ASG requirements anyway.

7:08– Sen. Rebecca Martin speaks against the amendment.  “Someone with just one semester of experience as a freshman could just run years later down the line.  This position is important and requires a lot of experience.”

7:05 – The amendment is introduced by Sen. Stewart.  “We want the president to have experience, but we don’t necessarily need it to be back-to-back.”

7:04  – Personally, I would say the voters should decide how important experience is, but most of you don’t read my blog before voting and have no idea who the candidates are anyway.

7:03 – Sen. McCollum says the Elections Committee also supports the bill, if it is passed with the amendment proposed by the Code & Constitution Committee.

A minority report suggested there are other ways to gain leadership experience on campus, including RIC.

7:01– Sen. Johannassen says the Code & Constitution Committee recommends the bill be passed with an amendment.  There are many reasons why a student might not be involved in ASG for a semester.  (working, illness, etc.)  The amendment would require a semester of experience, but not necessarily require that the semester be the one immediately preceding the election.

A minority of the committee members suggested that the bill would eliminate “fresh faces” in ASG and would “decrease democracy.”

6:58– Chair Lippert speaks in favor of Bill 5, which would require at least one semester of ASG experience to run for ASG President.

Can we nickname this ‘The Jacob Holloway Bill?’

6:57 – Bill 4 fails, by a vote of 18 – 14. 

6:48  – Chair Lippert speaks in favor of the bill, saying there is a risk that the election of split ticket could cause contention.

“In the past, we’ve elected a president by majority vote, but elected a vice-president in a run-off,” she says.  “You could see a whole year of animosity in a branch of ASG.”

6:47– The bill is unnecessary because the seats have always been elected together anyway, and it is harmful because candidates cannot run individually, the Elections Committee unanimously recommended against passing it, says Sen. McCollum.

The Code & Constitution also recommended against passing it, because it “decreases democracy,” says Sen. Johannessen.

6:43– Pres. Bookhout speaks on Bill 4, which would allow the ASG President and Vice-President to run on the same ticket on the ballot.

Bookhout says that running as a ticket is required.  Candidates may not run separately.

6:41 – Bill 3 is passed by unanimous consent.

6:40– Sen. Johannessen speaks on Bill 3, which would change the election expenditure reporting deadline and allow the results to be announced earlier.

It was unanimously recommended by the Code & Constitution Committee.

6:39 – White wins, 19 – 11.

6:34 – Sen. Norton and Sen. White tie – a runoff between those two candidates is now held.

6:32 – Ben Rector is played for the senators while ballots are counted.

This allows me to add the ‘Ben Rector’ tag and get some hits from search engines.

6:28 – Stewart exclaims “What would it say about me if I lose to a guy who’s not even here?”

Chair Lippert clarifies both of the absent senators (Norton and Hoersten) were excused for “legitimate reasons.”

6:25 – Sen. Ho speaks in favor of Norton – “he works hard in our press relations committee.”

Sen. McCollum, of UATV’s Campus Crossfire, says he thinks he’d “be good on the committee.”

Sen. White is “pretty good with numbers.”

Sen. Johannessen says Hoersten is new and this would be great experience.

Sen. Stewart says the position should be taken seriously.  “We need people who will show up, and do their job,” and asks “Do you really have time to serve on another committee?”

6:23– Five senators are running for a single seat on the Appropriations Committee – Norton, McCollum, White, Hoersten and Stewart.

6:14 – Gary Smith, Director of Parking and Transit, is looking to change the way parking permits are distributed on campus.

E-mail Chase Phillips, ASG Director of Parking and Transit at cphillips@uark.edu with comments.

6:12– RIC-ASG dual town halls are being set up by Cameron Mussar, ASG Liaison to Residents’ Interhall Congress.  The town halls will be held in individual residence buildings.  Look in your building for information on dates.

6:10 – Town Hall tomorrow from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm in the Union Connections Lounge.

6:09 – Student poll is closing tomorrow night, just before midnight.  Check your e-mail if you haven’t taken it yet.

Pres. Bookhout reads every comment.  Yes, every. single. one.

6:00 pm – Fall Break discussion highlights the crowded agenda.  With a dozen pieces of legislation scheduled to come to the floor, it looks like the senate’s been holding out on us all year.

A Fall Break could have been in place for 2010, and Faculty Senate members support the idea, according to ASG President Mattie Bookhout.  Unfortunately, the Faculty Senate couldn’t decide whether it wanted the break in October or November and decided not to vote on the proposal at all.  The Calendar Committee decided the delay made a 2010 break impossible.  The earliest we’ll get it now is 2011.

Other notable items include a Sustainability minor at the UA, a crosswalk at the intersection of Gregg and Maple and several changes to ASG election procedures.