SG Senate Resolution

You have to love Student Government during election time. Here’s a recap of the resolution process for all the die-hard UAEM fans out there, plus I need something other than a “leave comment here” on the first page of the site.

In January, Gloria Tavera and I went to a meet and greet with our SG senators. We sat and ate, eventually ending up talking to Senate President John Boyles and getting the names and addresses of a few senators to contact about a resolution. On the 30th, an email went out to Boyles, Julianne Mica, Jared Hernandez, Barbara Cineas, Monique Dieuvil, Joel Witter, Luis Suarez-Isaza, Meera Iyengar, and Devin Renner. Monique Dieuvil got back to me on the same day with wonderful questions, comments, and a pledge of sponsorship of the resolution. Still haven’t heard one comment from any of the others…

I waited until Feb 3 for comments from the senators and then sent the resolution off to judiciary chair Rebecca Guerra. The next Tuesday, I ended up in the Reitz during the Senate meeting and popped my head in to talk to Rebecca about getting on the judiciary agenda with our resolution and constitution.

Feb. 12 came quickly, and I was completely unprepared for what was to come. The constitution passed with a few minor changes, but the resolution got some “heated” discussion. Apparently, resolutions like this have gotten to the floor and fell on their face because some senators don’t think social policy is the role of SG. Of course I had misplaced the UF Policy Statements I brought, and was unable to give any coherent reason for why it is the role of SG to pass the resolution in favor of it. A few things were brought out that needed clarifying - like “human welfare” and support of the organization UAEM, which I think may be mildly inappropriate. It quickly went for a vote to be put on the floor, resulting in 7 unfavorables (Michael Patrone, Joshua Weiss, and Meghan Walters stick out) and 1 favorable (Ryan Nelson.) But, oops, there were some grammatical errors, so the vote was stricken with my permission. There was a request that I get a statement from the OTL Director, David Day, and when I said that I was going to meet him Tuesday at 7 at another club meeting that conflicted with the Senate meeting, the resolution was tabled.

Lovely Valentine’s Day rolled around and apparently Business Entrepreneurs don’t celebrate it often because Day’s talk was rescheduled when they realized what Feb. 14th meant. I had some time to kill and lingering questions from Sunday, so I meandered over to the Harn to give Rebecca the policy statements I had forgotten on Sunday.

Boyles was the first to greet me, asked about the resolution, and tried to help me find Rebecca. I got to talk to Michael Patrone again, asking him why he was so adamantly against the resolution. He reiterated that he didn’t think students or the student senators were qualified to talk on such topics. He suggested UAEM enlist an outside lobbying organization. Way to encourage student participation in university affairs!
I did have a decent conversation with Robert Agrusa. He said he wanted more facts so that he could be passionate about the issue. With the right approach and a little time he thought that the resolution could go somewhere.

So apparently things aren’t so dire as they seemed. I turned in the “anonymous” committee evaluation form today, but I have a feeling it wasn’t so anonymous, because here is what I got in my inbox a few hours later from Rebecca:

First and foremost, thank you for your hard work on this resolution. I understand your concerns. I also would like to see the committee be more helpful in conveying your intent with this legislation. If you would like to hold off until after Spring Break, that would be fine. Let me be clear that the committee’s role is to assist you, the author. If you would like to bring it sooner, I can ensure a much more supportive and helpful atmosphere. I also have the support from Senate President Boyles.

So, it’s time to devise a plan of attack. Michael Day has graciously volunteered to coordinate student organizational support for the Equal Access License. We need a little bit more information on the practices of OTL now that we know UF’s official policy statements. Then we need to get ahold of a few influential senators and start building support. Just make sure I don’t get over-eager about this again.