by Alec Williams
The Associated Student Government (ASG) of CMU met for their weekly meeting Wednesday, Oct. 11, after passing legislation the previous week that removed specific wording concerning staffing, committees and some formatting issues from the ASG constitution.
No bills were presented this week from senators or students asking for fee allocation, so senators spent the majority of the meeting discussing changes they want to see in the bylaws.
The meeting began with the election of Andrew Lucero for the position of the Montrose Campus senator. Lucero was suggested by the former Sen. Ally Wilkins, who stepped down earlier this month.
“I know the campus and the culture there, and also tutor down there a few days a week,” Lucero said during the meeting.
Lucero was asked to step out of the room and was elected, “yes,” by all 20 of the present senators. Shortly after he was sworn in by ASG Supreme Court Justice Wonder Wachara.
Various members of the executive staff discussed preparations for the homecoming carnival, which is to be held on Friday, Oct. 21, on the CMU plaza. ASG is sponsoring this homecoming event with games, prizes and an inflatable bounce house.
The senators took the remaining time of the meeting to have a discussion about amendments to the ASG bylaws. The bylaws were expected to have changes after a recent amendment to the ASG constitution passed last week. Sen. Tracy Langford is heading the bylaw amendments and asked for senators to offer comments on what needs to be seen.
“We’re going to take down your suggestions so that you can see them in the bylaws,” Langford said.
Senate Leader Brooke Houston expressed that keeping the bylaws specific would be important for ASG moving forward. Fee Allocations Committee (FAC) Chairman Jake Carmin and Wachara echoed this opinion.
The FAC, a student-run committee that allocates where student fees should go every two years, and its presence in the bylaws was then discussed. ASG President Josh Dillinger has repeatedly called for the removal of the FAC and reminded senators of this opinion Wednesday night.
“FAC has too much power, so no matter what, if you guys want to see FAC all around, then we need to amend FAC bylaws,” Dillinger said. “The scary thing about that is FAC bylaws can only be amended by FAC, essentially.”
Currently, FAC is made up of student representatives from different organization boards.
“Would we still want those members of FAC to be from the other organizations?” Sen. David Anderson said. “And I personally don’t think that it should be, because it’s honestly almost like having an interest group in congress.”
ASG will meet next week to discussion the legislation and fee requests.
