I can’t say I’m surprised by the ruling of the ASUO Con Court to not void the minutes of the June 13 Senate meeting. If you’re just joining us here on As The ASUO Turns, no minutes were taken of the meeting, but were scrapped together in an unorthodox and seemingly illegal fashion. The Con Court beings its opinion by explaining “this Court finds that meeting in question was held in violation of OPML,” then tells why it will allow for it.  

“…no party has argued that the decisions made during the June 13^th, 2007 meeting of the ASUO Student Senate would have been any different had minutes of said meeting been taken. Rather the violations of OPML in this case hampered the right of the public to be informed, which, while severe, is not the same… it is the Court’s conclusion that the damage done by voiding the June 13^th, 2007 ASUO Student Senate meeting outweighs the benefit to be gained from said action. Therefore, the results of the meeting stand.”

The court finished with this “warning.” 

“this is not to say that the actions of the Respondent in this matter have been at all acceptable. The Court enjoins the Respondent in the future to follow…in compliance with OPML, the ASUO Constitution, the Rules of the Student Senate and the guidelines laid out in 1 C.C. (2007/08). Failure to do so will find the Respondent in contempt of this Court and subject to strict penalties.” 

In today’s Emerald story about the fiasco, Senator Kate Jones, who sent this response to Con Court urging the court to make the decision that it did, said that the warning was “more extreme than most courts would go, but I respect it. It’s a valid interpretation of the law.’” 

No, this is an extreme warning. “You imbecile, inept wonders of all that is unruly, if you don’t stop passing notes and engaging in asinine representation of the students, this Court has the right mind to find you all in contempt and boot you out of office. Your lack of attention to guidelines and inability to proceed with matters in a timely and efficient manner makes a mockery of our legal and political systems. Shame on you.” Or something like that.  

At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if Sen. Diego Hernandez is allowed to keep his seat. At the said meeting, executive appointee Hernandez was not approved in the initial vote. Senator Gulley, who was in the minority of the vote, made a motion to reconsider, which passed, and then Hernandez was approved on the second vote. This is a direct violation of the Robert’s Rules of Order, which states motions to reconsider can only be made by a member of the majority vote. 

But details, details, details. Just another ASUO clusterfuck that ends with the thought, “Yea, we broke the rules, but we don’t want to attempt to redeem order in this process, so let’s just forget about it for now and hope this doesn’t happen again.” On a final note, this decision comes four months after the meeting. Had this issue been forced to a decision swiftly and firmly, then the Senate could have saved face and had a sturdier governing body for the school year.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 12:56 by Ossie and is filed under ASUO, Law, Things Only Ted Cares About. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.