Wednesday’s meeting was the last senate meeting of the year, but the first for the new 2015-2016 ASUO senators. As of this week, they no longer bear the title senator-elect and now have the power to vote during senate meetings.
Senate voted over seven special requests during Wednesday night’s meeting — the last special requests of the 2015-2016 school year. The requests consisted of three requests and four requests for funding from surplus, from the Men’s Center, Ed Connect, Young Americans for Liberty, Black Women of Achievement, Oregon Fifth Year, the ASUO Office and the Hawaii Club. The special requests that were funded from surplus, which totaled $10,440, were funded from a budget of $97,949 — a number that is still increasing as programs return their funds over the summer. The official surplus that the senators will have to work with for the 2015-2016 will be announced by the end of the summer.
The summer senate will consist of Senators Lusby, Corral, Snook, Dobyns, Burns, and Rentschler. Dobyns was nominated as president, and Burns was nominated to be vice president of the summer senate.
The senators voted in the confirmation of three ASUO Constitution Court justices, two ASUO senators, ACFC Executive Appointee and EMU Appointees.
The seven appointees were picked from a hiring application process and interviews with ASUO President, Helena Schlegel, ASUO Vice-President Francisco Morales-O’Connor, and ASUO Finance Director Shawn Stevenson. Outgoing ASUO Constitution Court Chief Justice, Alison Apana, sat in on the interviews appointing applicants for Constitution Court, and outgoing ASUO Senator, Andrew Lubash, sat in on the interviews for ASUO Senate.
“We took the interviews very seriously” Schlegel said, “we extended the deadlines to ensure that we got as many applicants as possible.”
Stevenson briefly discouraged senators from voting based on past campaign rivalries.
Gisele Schmidt was appointed to the ASUO Constitution Court. Schmidt is, as of next year, a second-year law student and vice-president elect of the Pro Bono Program.
Mike Cohen, who is as of next year, a third-year law student, was appointed to the ASUO Constitution Court. Has experience working at the Washington County District Attorney’s Office.
Kenneth Sergienko, sophomore political science major, was appointed to the ASUO Constitution Court. His interest in constitutional law was sparked by going to Supreme Court hearings on marriage equality, from the District Court judge, to the 9th Circuit, all the way to the Supreme Court in Washington D.C.
Martin Martinez, business and Spanish major, was appointed to the ASUO Senate Seat 12. He is a part of the UO CEO Network and has worked on the Programs Finance Committee.
Andrew Dunn, sophomore political science major, was appointed to the ASUO Senate. Dunn has a year’s worth of experience on the Athletic Department Finance Committee.
Mario Radic, junior, was confirmed as the EMU Appointee. He has contract negotiation experience as a member of the Croatian Fraternal Union.
Vasilisa Smith, was confirmed as the EMU Appointee. She has had experience as an ASUO intern.
All appointees, with the exception of two abstentions for Smith, were confirmed by unanimous votes from the Senate.
Rebecca Rhodes, the last of the outgoing senators, who presided over the meeting, said some final words encouraging the new senators to take their positions seriously.