Spring Break
Senate positions under question
Andy Weise
Issue date: 2/15/07 Section: Campus News
Student Senate elections for next term are less than a month away and after a recent bill to change the distinction between on and off-campus senators was voted down, the upcoming elections will again have 12 on-campus positions and 18 off-campus positions.
On-campus Senator Jacob Boer authored the bill on Monday that would have allowed all 30 student senator positions to be either on or off campus positions. Boer said the issue has been not being able to fill the off campus positions the past few sessions for Student Senate.
"I've been in Senate for two years - we've never been able to fill these (off-campus) positions," he said. "In my opinion there is no competition for off-campus spots, therefore we're not ensuring qualified or competent people getting in the organization."
Boer cited "enormously high turnover" for the off campus positions as to why he had hoped the bill would pass. He also said under his bill senators would have retained their on or off-campus titles, just the proportionality for the senate would have changed.
Vice President Chris Nielson, who also supported the bill, said they have had to turn away good applicants for senator positions who were on-campus students even though off-campus positions were vacant.
"It's sad," he said, "when you have to turn away three or four good freshmen. (There's been) a lot of turnover and rather than have the best on or off applicants, (we would like to) bring in the best applicants."
With the Wednesday deadline for Senate applications, Nielson said only six students had applied for on-campus Senate positions and 10 students for off-campus as of press time.
One bill that did pass through the Senate was the 2007-2008 Organized Activities Budget, which passed without complaint.
"The Finance Commission did an excellent job," Nielson said. "(We) saw that because there were no objections. (The Finance Commission) should be applauded for their work."
In light of the below zero temperatures Secretary Aaron Olson introduced a bill that will be debated this upcoming Monday. According to the bill, classes would be canceled if the wind chill reached 40 degrees below zero.
On-campus Senator Jacob Boer authored the bill on Monday that would have allowed all 30 student senator positions to be either on or off campus positions. Boer said the issue has been not being able to fill the off campus positions the past few sessions for Student Senate.
"I've been in Senate for two years - we've never been able to fill these (off-campus) positions," he said. "In my opinion there is no competition for off-campus spots, therefore we're not ensuring qualified or competent people getting in the organization."
Boer cited "enormously high turnover" for the off campus positions as to why he had hoped the bill would pass. He also said under his bill senators would have retained their on or off-campus titles, just the proportionality for the senate would have changed.
Vice President Chris Nielson, who also supported the bill, said they have had to turn away good applicants for senator positions who were on-campus students even though off-campus positions were vacant.
"It's sad," he said, "when you have to turn away three or four good freshmen. (There's been) a lot of turnover and rather than have the best on or off applicants, (we would like to) bring in the best applicants."
With the Wednesday deadline for Senate applications, Nielson said only six students had applied for on-campus Senate positions and 10 students for off-campus as of press time.
One bill that did pass through the Senate was the 2007-2008 Organized Activities Budget, which passed without complaint.
"The Finance Commission did an excellent job," Nielson said. "(We) saw that because there were no objections. (The Finance Commission) should be applauded for their work."
In light of the below zero temperatures Secretary Aaron Olson introduced a bill that will be debated this upcoming Monday. According to the bill, classes would be canceled if the wind chill reached 40 degrees below zero.
Be the first to comment on this story