Recap of the April 7 ASUAF meeting

By Maria Menninger 

The Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks rehashed bills from previous weeks that discussed Senator stipends and abstention from Senator voting at their Tuesday meeting. 

Senators broke into discussion after the amended stipend for senators bill came back from the Rules Committee. The original bill, if passed, would have established a $2,000 per academic year stipend for each senator and an additional $500 per academic year for senators who served as committee chairs. 

The Rules Committee amended the bill to allow a senator-appointed external committee to vote on and handle the senator stipend bill. The idea was to eliminate a possible conflict of interest. 

The external committee would be ASUAF Advisor Victoria Thompson, Wood Center and Student Engagement Director Josh Hovis and ASUAF President Nelson, ensuring senators did not interfere or interact with the stipend funds. The committee would decide how the money is divided and who is eligible.

Since the bill was proposed, there has been some disagreement among students who believe that the senators should not be voting for a bill that would pay them. Some senators expressed this same concern, citing potential ethical violations. 

President Jackson Nelson said that putting together an external committee would remove any conflict of interest regarding the bill.

However, Sen. Eugene Wiltz said the conflict of interest still exists within this new bill. “We are deciding who decides if we get money,” he said. “So, the conflict-of-interest part just doesn’t go away.”

Sen. Jesse Tyrell and President Nelson encouraged senators and concerned students to come to a Rules Committee meeting so that everyone has a chance to voice their opinions on the stipends and learn more about what is trying to be accomplished by implementing this bill. 

The bill did not pass.

The Senators also discussed amendments made to the bill on senator voting abstention. If passed, senators would be required to vocally cast a vote of yay, nay or abstain. The original bill required the senate to decide if a senator could abstain from their vote. The amended bill stated the opposite. Now, the senator would be able to abstain without the permission of the senate. 

Like the stipend bill, it was sent to the Rules Committee where strikes and amendments were made to the original legislation to reflect the intention of the bill. Rules such as requiring Senators to give a reason and requesting permission from the senate were amended. However, Tyrell and Wiltz noticed the updated bill did not reflect the discussed changes. 

The amended bill first states that senators must vote yay, nay or abstain but must have permission from a majority vote from the Senate to abstain. Then, it says the senator must voice their abstention but is not required to give a statement regarding the decision. The original bill required a statement to be given publicly. 

Later in the bill was language that said senators must vote yay or nay and didn’t specify anything about abstention. 

Tyrell, who was present at the Rules Committee meeting, said the legislation had clerical errors and did not reflect what he believed was discussed in the committee meeting held the previous Sunday. 

Tyrell moved to request a five-minute break so he could speak with those present at the rules meeting to clarify the clerical errors in the legislation. 

These errors were not resolved as Tyrell, Wiltz and Nelson, who were at the rule meeting, did not agree upon the original intentions of the bill. 

Nelson originally wanted to bill to reflect the same abstention policy as the Alaska State Legislature. But many Senators didn’t feel that they should be required to voice a reason for abstaining from a vote. Many felt simply saying they abstain is enough.

This new bill was intended to reflect those senators’ opinions. But due to the clerical errors, the bill contradicted itself and didn’t resolve the original issue of whether or not a senator had to present a reason for abstaining. 

The Senate moved to table the bill and sent it back to the Rules Committee for adjustment. 

The meeting adjourned at 6:25 p.m.