Student Senate amends bylaws to clarify appointed positions, votes

03/12/09 - Last night the University of Rhode Island Student Senate amended senate bylaws to prevent potential voting inconsistencies and to clarify the job obligations of appointed positions.Officers will now require a majority vote from the senate in order to be elected into a position. Previously, officers were required to have one-third of the senate vote.

With the previous bill, the majority of the senate could also vote against a senator being an appointed officer, yet the officer can still win.

Last February, the Cigar published an article about the "iffy" work of the then director of communications, which is among the appointed positions on senate.

"Since September, DOC Sara Addis has been paid more than $1,000 to produce six press releases, attend one meeting at Rhode Island College to discuss the governor's proposed higher education budget cuts and field an unknown amount of phone calls," the article stated.

To pay an elected official for a job they do not complete up to senate standards, Chairman of the Finance Committee Allen Petit explained, "Is kind of a waste of student tax money."

"We've seen over the last few years there have been issues with appointed positions not doing their job effectively," Petit said.

According to Petit, the majority vote was the rule until roughly five years ago when a former student senate president decided a one-third vote would better suffice.

The senate agreed the new amendment to the bylaws makes sure the group's opinions as a whole will count, as opposed to just the president's.

The second part of the proposed bill that was amended saw more opposition from senators.

The bill stated the DOC is obligated to complete a minimum of one newsletter per semester. Current DOC Juelia Simon started the newsletter this year, publishing one per month.

"I thought it would be a good idea to communicate what the senate is doing to the students," Simon said.

Senator Anthony Sinapi explained the confusion about the amendment was due to the fact that some senators weren't clear on the DOC's duties.

Along with the newsletter, the DOC took on some of the responsibility that was left when the Chief Operations Officer was cut this fall. Simon's duties include pubic relations, communication and keeping track of the senate's project goals.

Simon explained this would not diminish her output of newsletters, because before the amendment there wasn't even a minimum. If in the future a DOC is not working up to par, the president that appointed them has the right to fire him or her.

In other news:

There was an internal election for off-campus representatives because of a tie in the original vote. Sophomore Corey Long, the only candidate to show up to the meeting, won along with fourth-year student Jessica Chan.

Another amendment to the senate bylaws passed, clarifying an inconsistency with club levels. As stated currently, the senate may, by two-thirds vote, enact legislation that grants eligibility for funding by budget Levels I and II. Level III clubs also receive a financial benefits package. The new bill now includes Level III clubs in writing.

The four finalists for the commencement speaker search are seniors Andrew Blais, Phillip Bowers, Mary Colman and Bailey Grossman. The finalists read their speeches to senate. The selection committee will reconvene after Spring Break to make a final decision.

Representatives from Students for Sustainable Development Christina Knoll, Rob Swanson and Ed Avizinis asked the senate for support in preventing the university from putting a research park in the North Woods of campus.

According to the representatives, the university's reason for the placement of the park is its marketable location, and that it's closer to the new Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences. "We do want a research park, just in a different area," Avizinis said. The area in question is where many of the Natural Resource Science students do research. The representatives estimated 1,300 students a year use the North Woods, and the closest similar space to URI is roughly 30 minutes.

There is no immediate plan for the research park to be built because the university cannot currently find funding for the project.