Following a retreat last weekend at Bass Lake, the Undergraduate Senate found Tuesday that it still had some procedural kinks to work out to set the tone for the year, including expectations regarding laptop use in Senate meetings and collaboration on writing bills.
At the second meeting of the year, with a close vote of eight to six, the Senate passed a bill establishing the Senate rules of order.
The Senate tabled a bill requiring that students seeking special fees refunds do so in person at Stanford Student Enterprises and passed funding bills for the Objectivists of Stanford and the Educational Studies Program.
The Senate also confirmed the ASSU Nominations Commission’s second round of nominees. Last Wednesday, the executive committee appointed Stephanie Garrett ’12 as chair of the Nominations Commission and Hilary Stone ‘13 as deputy chair after the previous chair and deputy chair stepped down from their positions due to personal time constraints.
Rules of Order
The majority of Tuesday evening’s meeting was spent discussing a bill establishing the Senate’s rules of order. The Senate adopted several minor friendly amendments to the bill involving procedural issues, such as the time limits on committee reports at Senate meetings.
The bulk of the controversy surrounding the lengthy bill centered on Article 19, which prohibited the use of electronic devices, specifically laptops, by senators during meetings, except for specific Senate business and note-taking.
“When we visited last year’s meetings, the vast majority of people were doing stuff while voting…we weren’t happy with that,” said Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ’13, one of the bill’s authors.
Several senators expressed concern that the no-laptop policy lacked a mechanism of enforcement.
“It’s not about slapping anybody on the wrist,” said ASSU Vice President Kelsei Wharton ’12.
Juany Torres ’13, chair of the administration and rules committee, was disappointed that her committee had not seen the bill before it was brought to the Senate for discussion.
“I feel I was disrespected, as well as my committee,” Torres said.
The bill’s authors, Macgregor-Dennis, Chair Michael Cruz ’12 and Daniel Khalessi ’13, accepted responsibility for the oversight and emphasized their good intentions.
Special Fees and Appropriations
A bill requiring that students request special fees refunds in person at Stanford Student Enterprises was tabled until next week as senators expressed a need for input from the Graduate Student Council and Stanford Student Enterprises.
The appropriations committee held a successful town hall on Monday evening, according to committee Chair Rafael Vasquez ’12, who reported that the 12 student group financial officers in attendance provided valuable feedback to tighten loopholes in policy and improve communication to student groups.
To begin Tuesday evening’s meeting was itself a small hurdle for the Senate. Last week, faced with a locked room and a lost key, the Senate was unable to meet in the normal second-floor Nitery room and moved into Old Union. This week, Senator Will Seaton ’13 descended from a bathroom window onto a balcony to enter the scheduled meeting room through a window.
“He’s Superman in disguise,” said Senator Pat Bruny ’13 of his fellow senator.