The Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Reno met at their second to last senate meeting of the session on April 3 to discuss six different pieces of legislation on the table and to hear rumors of judicial council accusations on transparency.
Judicial council accusations
Shaylie Walker, a current associate justice in the judicial council gave public comment at the senate table about the council. Walker said she learned her transparency goals were not shared by the council after her confirmation hearing.
“Your judicial council is currently operating on the minimum requirement for transparency per NSHE requirements,” she said.
The judicial council is excused from the provisions of Nevada Open Meeting Law, but Walker said the council is having several closed and non-agendized meetings and that allowing the closed meetings to continue is unfair to the students.
“We are a public body,” Walker said. “It is paradoxical that the public would be excluded from all but two of the judicial council meetings this semester.
Walker is also hoping to collaborate with a senator to write a piece that holds the council accountable for complying with Nevada Open Meeting Law to ensure transparency for the future of the council. She wants the future judicial council to go beyond the NSHE requirements and be more transparent.
Brayden Taeubel, chief justice of ASUN, responded to Walker’s comments in his report by saying the judicial council is exempt from open meeting law due to the rules and laws of the Nevada Legislature as a judicial body.
He adds that the judicial council often has meetings that are needed quickly, which would be restricted by the open meeting and agenda requirements of this. Taeubel said he’s held two more public meetings than the previous year’s council.
“Anything dealing with rules or procedures, I’ve had public meetings. Talking about budgets, I’ve had public meetings,” Taeubel said. “I try my best to be transparent to you all, and if you have a problem with the way the judicial council works, I recommend going to the board of regents or the Nevada Legislature.”
The chief justice also said that personal relationships within the association affected the way the officers do their jobs. He also notes a tension between his position and the attorney general recently, but that this is the law he is abiding by specifically.
He also read out the March 19 order of impeachment and said that Fayza Salah, speaker of the senate, decided to not go forward with the investigation.
Salah told the senate table that she was unsure of the impeachment protocols and wanted to make sure they followed the process exactly since this was a serious charge. In her memo to the judicial council and the Committee on Oversight, she said that an individual also has to be given five working days’ notice before their character is discussed in a meeting.
Salah sought out the opinion of James Greco, the attorney general, to take extra caution and explained she’d been researching impeachment procedures. She explained she did not have enough time for the committee to investigate and send it to trial by the last senate meeting of the session on April 10.
Jefrin Jojan, senator for the College of Engineering, and Joel Martin, senator for the College of Liberal Arts, argued there could’ve been enough time, but the delay to get on the impeachment rules pushed this back.
“I feel like it’s about basic accountability and following the rule of law,” Jojan said.
Salah argued that an impeachment investigation should bring closure and conclusion, which it would not have done if they carried through, now.
“I value your opinion, but what I say still stands,” Salah said.
S.R. 91: A Resolution In Support of Renaming the President’s Conference Room to the Frankie Sue Del Papa President’s Conference Room
The resolution in support for naming the President’s Conference Room after Frankie Sue Del Papa was presented by Alex Bybee, the chief strategy officer at Communities in Schools in Nevada, who has a close relationship with Del Papa, and Ila Achtabowski, the executive director of Nevada’s Women Fund.
The piece was presented by Kelsea Frobes, senator for the School of Journalism, on behalf of Isabella Valdivieso, the director of executive affairs of ASUN. The goal of the resolution is to honor and recognize the legacy and impact of Frankie Sue Del Papa at UNR.
All of the name changes will not be financially responsible by ASUN but instead will be fundraised privately by individuals engaged in the effort to honor Del Papa.
The resolution was passed unanimously by the senate table.
S.B. R. – 91 – An Act to Publicize the Senate Legislation Tracker and S. B. – 91 An Act to Publicize the Senate Legislation Tracker
These bills were re-proposed by Carmina Aglubat, senator for the College of Liberal Arts, to publicize a ASUN senate legislation tracker.
The tracker will show 25% during their research stage, 50% during their writing phase, 75% if passed to a committee for first reading and 100% if the bill or resolution is passed or not.
It doesn’t call out senators who haven’t written legislation, but encourages senators who have written legislation and shows their progress
Senators must update the tracker with their outreach form and can accumulate one-third of a point of discretion of the speaker if they do not. However, if senators don’t write legislation, they won’t be penalized, they just have to include updates to match with the outreach form.
The goal of these pieces were to show transparency to the body of what the senate is doing and to show encouragement for senators to continue advancing and writing legislation pieces.
Both forms of legislation were reformed and after a few clarification questions both of the pieces passed unanimously through the senate.
S.B. 91: An Act Codifying the Guerra-Alquiza Passion Fund
Boris Guerra and Hannah Alquiza gave a brief presentation on the piece outlining that this bill will simply make sure the passion fund is continued in future sessions and not eradicated.
The fund was created to help students who struggle with paying for certain things in clubs and organizations. There have been 50 applicants and roughly 20 have been approved. The $10,000 has not fully been used because the monetary needs change based on what a certain club needs.
A few concerns were raised about the money mostly going to Greek life, but the bill was passed with one ‘no’ vote.
S.B. 91: An Act Amending the Apportionment of the Senate to Include the Honors College
Vera Vaz, senator for the College of Science, presented this piece to the senate as a fast-tracked bill because the honors college seat needed to be fixed before the next session. The bill would allow the winner of the Honors College seat, Madison Kitch, to represent her college.
The bill was passed unanimously through the senate.
The speaker encouraged the senators to be nice to Kitch, the new holder of the seat.
S.R. 91: A Resolution in Support of A Day of Recognition for University Police Services
This resolution was presented by Mark Meiszburger, senator for the College of Business and speaker pro tempore. The goal of the piece is to dedicate Oct. 10 as a day of recognition for University Police Services based on the work they complete.
Eric James, chief of police of UNRPD, gave public comment voicing his support for this piece. He expressed gratitude to Aween Ali, senator for the College of Engineering, and Meiszburg for presenting this piece.
“I can tell you I’ve been here twenty years and this has never come up once,” James said.
The day will also help educate students on the resources available to police services and how university police protect and serve students on this campus.
Many senators brought up concerns about the police services not changing their efforts at all with this resolution.
However, because it is a resolution, it would be under the discretion of the director of public relations each year to decide if they want to post it on social media. It would also be up to the discretion of the chair of the committee on safety, sustainability and wellness on whether they would pass this piece to the next chair.
Jefrin Jojan brought up the history of how UNRPD has previously treated students of color on campus and explained that he felt like this would be forgetting what happened in the past.
“I don’t feel comfortable voting for this piece because it doesn’t explicitly mention anything,” Jojan said. “It just feels like giving them a free recognition pass from ASUN … without any sort of accountability or change that I’ve seen personally from UNRPD.”
Meiszburger said this gives them the option to promote this voice for change, but Jojan continued to point out that the piece does not guarantee the change and doesn’t have it in the wording that they will change.
The discussion trickled down to the wording of the piece, emphasizing there is a possible disconnect with how students truly feel about UNRPD. Diana Landazuri, senator for the College of Business, told Meiszburger that the piece has good intentions, but could use work in the way it was written.
Meiszburger said he just wanted to show appreciation for UNRPD and that he wants to express gratitude over this but recognizes that not all students will feel this way. He told the table he was willing to shut this piece down and rewrite it.
The piece was fairly split between the senate, but they decided to vote majority ‘no’ on the piece.
Jaedyn Young can be reached at jaedynyoung@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @jaedyn_young3.
