Vis Lupi Est Grex

Oh, That Constitutional Amendment

The Nevada Sagebrush has finally woken up to the fact that things are not very peachy in ASUN. The Sagebrush reports, as we and others did last week, that a constitutional amendment has not yet made it to the Regents. (Granted the Sagebrush is a weekly publication, but it is also no secret that the constitutional amendment went nowhere--fine investigative reporting, Sagebrush. I guess we have Coltrain to thank.)

Also of note is that the draft impeachment resolution, which we posted here first (and somebody else added to), was printed and placed in senators' mailboxes, according to the Sagebrush. Although we cannot claim credit for most of the resolution--we do take credit for "borrowing" a resolution considered during the 75th Senate Session and doing the hard work of substituting Reilly's name for Ragsdale's--we can state that nobody affiliated with this blog is the author of the additional three articles of impeachment, nor are we responsible for distributing the draft to the senators.

We do not disagree with the contents of the draft resolution.


"Fact" check.
To the Sagebrush, a minor factual error in your story. Let's cite the relevant portion of Mr. Balagna's article and see if you can spot it.

The [constitutional] amendment the resolution refers to was passed through the 75th session of the ASUN Senate in April 2007, during former president Sarah Ragsdale’s term and nearly 11 months before Reilly was elected president.

Senate Resolution 75-45, which proposes a constitutional amendment, was agreed to by the Senate on February 20, 2008. The April 2007 date reported is the date on which the Senate's 75th Session began. (We can understand how the date printed on the resolution could be misleading, but a careful reading will show that it says that the 75th Session was "begun and held at the City of Reno on the eighteenth day of April, two thousand and seven.")

While technically correct that this occurred during Ragsdale's term, 10 months of Reilly's term has lapsed during which the amendment has been pending, waiting to be acted upon. It is misleading to suggest this is Ragsdale's fault, although she most certainly played a role. It is also misleading to suggest Reilly is entirely at fault, as Mr. Taycher has suggested on his blog.


Not my job.
So whose job was it to shepherd the amendment along to the Board of Regents? Could something possibly provide us the guidance, the direction, the wisdom, to tell us who on earth is supposed to move the amendment from student ratification to Board of Regents approval? Why, yes, my dear Virginia, there is. An ASUN law suggestion. ASUN Public Law 75-40, the Constitutional Amendments Procedure Act of 2008 as it's popularly known, available on none other than ASUN's OWN FRICKIN' WEBSITE, spells out exactly whose duty it is (or was) to certify the amendment's ratification.

The law (at section 3)--which at two pages long is clearly too long for anybody in ASUN to read and comprehend--makes it the duty of the Chair of the Commission on Association Elections to certify to the University president that an amendment has been ratified pursuant to the proper, legal, and constitutional process IMMEDIATELY after an amendment has been ratified. The Chair on March 13, 2008, the date the amendment was ratified in a general election, was Nicole Nelson. She simply failed to do her job as expressed in the law...err suggestion.

The relevant text of the law follows:

SEC. 3. CERTIFICATION TO PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF RATIFICATION OF AMENDMENT BY MEMBERSHIP OF ASSOCIATION; DUPLICATE CERTIFICATES.
(a) CERTIFICATION TO THE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT.—Whensoever an amendment to the Constitution has been ratified by the membership of the Association, pursuant to the provisions of Article V of the Constitution, the Chair of the Commission on Association Elections shall forthwith certify to the President of the University that the amendment was ratified pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution.
(b) DUPLICATE CERTIFICATES.—The Chair of the Commission on Association Elections shall cause to be filed with the Secretary of the Senate, the Archivist of the Associated Students, and the President of the Associated Students a duplicate of the certificate as provided for in subsection (a).

Real tough stuff. It was never done.

Former president Ragsdale is not blameless in this. She had a constitutional duty to ensure the laws were faithfully executed, including the "stupid" ones calling for certifications of things. One month passed from the election to April 16, 2008, the date the new officers took office. That was one month within which Ragsdale should have ensured the Election Commission chair was doing her job. But she didn't. Ragsdale must have had some carpet samples to look at.

Eli Reilly took office as president of the Associated Students on April 16, 2008. From that point until now, Eli had a constitutional duty to ensure that the laws were faithfully executed. He still has that duty. Nicole Nelson was technically in her office until her successor, Sean Driscoll, was confirmed by the Senate on October 15, 2008 (ASUN Public Law 75-25, section 2(a)(2)(B)). It then became Sean's duty to certify the amendment. During all that time, nothing happened.


Disconnect.
In fairness, things get forgotten through transitions. Sean was appointed likely not knowing that his predecessor's duty went unperformed. Eli was probably too busy worrying about Homecoming than focusing on other parts of his job. Sarah was already dreaming of Boston by the spring semester of her senior year. The 75th Senate was too focused on the election fuck-ups, which seriously threatened a constitutional crisis and was not resolved until literally the day they left office (April 16, 2008). (See this Nevadawiki.org page for general information about the 2008 election, and the linked Sagebrush articles at the bottom of this post.) And once they left office, it was no longer their problem. Lots of people share in this, but doesn't the buck stop someplace?


A common element.
In all of this, there is one common element: Sandra Rodriguez, director of ASUN/Student Activities. Call her the institutional memory. Her job, above all else, is to make sure the student leaders do not break the playground rules. She, throughout all of this time, was adviser to the ASUN president. What exactly was she advising Eli to do? One wonders if this was ever brought up. Clearly if anybody could know what the law is, it is Sandy. This doesn't absolve others of their duties, but Sandy should have played the grown up to the immature ASUN officers.

No consequences.
The larger undergraduate student body (read the vast majority who don't give a flying fuck about ASUN) think ASUN is a joke. When duties constantly are neglected, when senators do not respect themselves or their roles, when a president doesn't get what it means to be president, it's no wonder it's a joke. A bad one, at that.

Yes, this is a student government. And yes, this is supposed to be a learning experience. And yes, this doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. But whatever happened to there being consequences for negligent acts?

The senators may laugh this off, but this is serious business. You are university students. You are adults. Start acting like it.


Election stories.
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/03/18/mistakes-plague-asun-election/
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/03/20/official-asun-election-results-put-on-hold/
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/04/01/asun-election-results-remain-unofficial/
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/04/08/official-asun-election-results-still-pending-judicial-ruling/
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/04/11/judicial-council-oks-asun-presidential-results/
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/04/15/council-upholds-election-results/

Thank you, thank you, thank you Sagebrush (seriously) for keeping year-old stuff online and accessible.