Vis Lupi Est Grex

Tell me which law....

Before the Senate invests too much energy on Joint Vision 2017, it might want to take notice of all of ASUN's structure and operational realities that--ahem--are not enacted into ASUN law. Inkblot? Nope. Legal Services? Barely. ASUN Advertising? Nah ah. The beast that is the "administrative operation" of ASUN? Not a word. Campus Escort? Sorry. ASUN's relationship with publications? No. Not important.

The fact of the matter is very little of what ASUN is and does is codified into statute law passed by the Senate. The consequences? Well, the Senate has pretty much no control over what a unit does once the Senate hands out money to the unit. The best example is Inkblot. Over the years it has been a chameleon, constantly changing its color to suit the needs of one ASUN presidential administration after another. When I began taking notice of ASUN in 2004, Inkblot was fully open for use by clubs. By 2007, it was practically an exclusive publicity arm of ASUN. And not a single word from the Senate dictated that policy shift. And the consequences are even more grave than just the Senate not having control.

Continuing our example, since no law explicitly establishes Inkblot, arguably spending money on it is not legal, as framed under ASUN's Constitution and budget laws. A student literally could file a complaint with the Judicial Council citing this fact, and the Council would probably rule that Inkblot has no basis in law, and therefore it is not legal to spend money on that program. See where I am going with this? Extrapolate that ruling out to every other ASUN program and service that was never established by the Senate, or at least never had the current establishments and practices codified into current law, and you've got one hell of a disaster. We started placing the current structures into law right after the new constitution took effect in 2007, but it never got finished (sorry, guys, but the senators of the 75th Session and I are not gods). There just wasn't enough time and other things took priority. Of course, there's nothing preventing the Senate from picking up where we left off.

The implications in light of Joint Vision 2017

ASUN President Eli Reilly's Joint Vision document (narrative and fees proposal) will necessitate many structural changes in ASUN. Ideally, these changes would be accompanied with implementing legislation so it is absolutely clear what the Senate intends to change and how. One example: programming. Under JV 2017, the programming for the major university weeks (Welcome Week, Homecoming, and Mackay Week) would no longer be within the purview of the elected student government. That's right, it's handed over completely to unelected, unaccountable employees of Student Activities. But wait? We have this fantastic homecoming department just for homecoming and a programming department for everything else that already exists in ASUN. It's in the ASUN law. The Senate has spoken, and the law is the law. Well, until the Senate fixes that conflict, should the plan come to pass, there'd be two groups on campus responsible for programming the exact same event. Problem? Just a little.

But the administrators like having little in law. Less accountability when no written document states what the expectations and limitations are. If you can't point to a written standard of conduct, it's hard to argue someone isn't doing his or her job. Also, each time the Senate writes a law defining how the business of ASUN is to be run, the administrators throw up their hands in protest, arguing that the Senate is infringing on their abilities to conduct business. I call bullshit. That's exactly what a legislature should be doing. This is the table of contents for the Nevada Revised Statutes. All of that law comes from the legislature. Almost all of the law defines how the government and persons and entities within Nevada should do things. The ASUN Senate should endeavor to do the exact same thing, on a much smaller scale, of course.

Joint Vision 2017 may have merit, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking the Senate's work is done when it disposes of this plan by non-binding resolution, which I might add is very vague and poorly written.

The debate is widespread

This debate has sparked widespread discontent among the student body, and even the graduates for the portion of the fee they would be subject to. Below are some links to some of the more interesting sources.

• The Nevada Sagebrush, Senate and University Affairs Committee meeting live blog, October 28, 2009
  
• Get Informed on JV 2017 facebook group
• Graduate Student Association Blog, "New Student Fee Proposal & Activities for Grads"

Posted by Sean at 7:50 AM

Labels: ASUN Senate, Joint Vision 2017, Laws