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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1965)
ASUO's Job: Represent Students SU Director A. L. “Si" Elling son is fond of saying, “The main function of student government is to represent student opinion to the other ‘publics' (faculty, administration, alumni, etc.) in the University. “But the problem is that when it does that job right it doesn’t always make headlines." j Which is to say that when stu ent leaders represent their con stituents properly, student gov ernment runs smoothly, there's ao controversy and few head ines. Thus are student politicians at fhe University often criticized for “playing politics" too much— <o keep student government in 4he headlines. j Yet finding the best way to Represent student opinion has been the main activity of student government here for the past three years. And during .that same period student criticism of that Jovernment has risen to a new igh, with many students won dering. "What good does student government do me?” New Constitution Two years ago—after a long Campaign and several defeats— student leaders got passed a new ASUO Constitution which they thought would better allow them to represent the students. Last year, at the instigation of ASUO President John Lnvaas and primarily through the efforts of Parliamentarian Bob Boflay. the (Operations of student government tyere further refined with a new set of bylaws and a set of rules for the operation of the ASUO $enate. ! What they came up with is a system of committees, patterned to some extent after the struc ture of Congress. Briefly here’s the way the Sen ate will operate under the sys tem devised by Bollay and ap- j proved by the Senate last year: Bills may be presented by “any interested party”—senator, non spnator, or a group—to ASUO Vice President Tom Clark, the Senate presiding officer'' Clark then sends the bill to one of five committee chairmen — campus planning, academic and cultural, governing, public affairs, budge tary. Committee Hearings ! That chairman then calls a committee hearing on the bill, notifies its sponsors of the time and place of the hearing, j The committee reports its ac tion on the bill at the next Sen ate meeting. Then there are three things that can happen. ; 1. If it’s passed by the commit-! tee it goes on the agenda for Sjenate action. I 2. If it fails in committee it cpn still be called up by a vote of' one-third of the Senate, i 3. If the bill fails in committee oj* the committee fails to report! op the bill within 14 days, Vice President Clark may discharge the committee and present the bjll to the Senate anyway. i Tile Senate can also completely bypass the committees, put bills directly on the Senate floor with a! two-thirds vote. I After the Senate passes a bill ill goes to ASUO President Steve Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt may vpto the bill and return it to the sjenate. (Legislation vetoed by the president may be passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.) President’s Powers Goldschmidt also has a num ber of other powers under that two - year - old constitution. He nominates student members of student-faculty committees, ap points members of ASUO com mittees, prepares the ASUO bud get that last year reached about $7,100, and is usually a major author of much Senate legislation. Vice President Clark presides over the Senate, runs the ASUO elections, and is the president’s right hand man. Among some of the major is sues the Senate will probably consider this year: • Faculty evaluation forms. A Senate-sponsored form distributed in some classes winter term at tempted to obtain a student evalu ation of .professors. But .the com mittce in charge of the form de cided it wasn’t a good one after all, junked it and started over. Steve Smith, who's not a sena tor, and Sociology Professor Roy H. Rodgers started experiments on a new evaluation plan last spring. They'll be the main ones in charge of getting a form in operation here — with Senate backing. • The National Student Asso ciation. NSA barely survived an attempt to cut its budget last year and virtually remove its effectiveness. The Senate voted to cut the budget but the Student Union and Educational Activities Budget Board, which controls all budgets that come out of student fees, restored NSA’s money. But that Senate vote indicated NS A will probably be watched closely this year to make sure it performs a service to University students. In his campaign last spring. President Goldschmidt put heavy emphasis on NSA’s im portance to the campus. • Further revisions in the con I stitution and by laws. Bollay liasn't completed his bylaw-writ ! ing project yet and there was some criticism of “slopping word ing" in the constitution last ! spring. • Goldschmidt's programs. The | ASUO president called for half a dozen new ASUO programs in his campaign, will probably have plenty of bills ready for the i Senate. IT'S FASCINATING D.Q. 5c SALE See Ad—Page 3 Want to really net result*?— Uho Emerald Clanniflcd Ads— Phone 342 1411, Ext. 1818 1 enneui AfAVC C1DCT Ol IAI I TV v ALWAYS FIRST QUALITY SAVE! FINE QUALITY PINE FURNITURE Choose Ready-to-Finish or Salem Maple Finished All knot-free, kiln dried Ponderosa pine, quality-constructed for sturdy, long-lasting use. Perfect for students' rooms. 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