The meeting started at 6:04 PM with no objections to the agenda, followed by the land of acknowledgment.
None of the justices were in attendance, so they could not vote for anything, but they did have discussions and gave updates on critical issues with voting on them moved to a later meeting.
A petition is going around for students to have partial refunds. The academic senator is currently working on trying to make this happen, as SOU is the only university in Oregon that does not offer partial refunds.
The speaker has finished all the one-on-one meetings. All the transition materials are ready. There will be another meeting with each of the senators before the term is over. The executive branch reminded us the town hall would be tonight, 5/12/22, and all students are welcome to attend.
Next Tuesday is the ASSOU awards ceremony. Next Saturday is the dinner ASSOU members will have with the SOU president, and there will be one more all ASSOU this year. Bylaw meetings are not happening this week, and the Senate asked to keep posting on presence.
The administration brought to attention that ASSOU was coming into election season and provided some perspective on how elections can be a contentious time. They are happy about how well ASSOU has done this year and how all the candidates have been supporting each other. Also, all the candidate’s advice on those running for the same seat is that they should speak kindly to each other.
Over the last week, there have been some controversial protests on campus. A reminder, since SOU is a public space, any protest is allowed on campus and that if they make students uncomfortable, they should avoid them, and campus life will be posting when they happen to give students a heads up.
ROTC (Reverse Officer Training Corp) gave an overview of what they are on campus, which are essentially a group of students who are currently going through boot camp.
RHA reminded ASSOU they are hiring for next year, and NHRA will be holding pancake night the week before finals. Clubs have finished allocating funds for all the clubs and organizations for next year. Athletics reminded us that deaf climb night and queer climb night are later this month.
Conclusion: there was an overview of how ASSOU has revamped the organization of their google drive. For example, there are no folders dedicated to transition materials, committee materials, senate meeting minutes, etc.
Despite not being able to vote on them for another week, all the changes to the ASSOU various sections of the bylaws were altered, cut, or added.
For open form, a reminder that pub night is Thursday, outdoor movie night is Friday, and town hall is tonight, 5/12/22.
OSPRIG gave a follow-up about them losing their funding; this was them making their case as to why they should not lose funding. They went through all of their accomplishments from helping with charities, getting hundreds of students to register to vote, to helping pass a textbook price transparency law. They also brought multiple alumni and transfer students during an open forum. This alumnus explained how OSPRIG changed them and put them on the path of their careers. The chapter chair of OSPRIG also explained to ASSOU the great work and importance that OSPRIG has done on campus, including their internship program and how that gave many students a hands-on experience and how this shapes the activists of the country’s needs right now. One of the members who can physically to the meeting even explained how OSPRIG is so different from other clubs and what they bring to the table on the campus.
6:48 P.M. meeting adjourned.
