Vis Lupi Est Grex

Is Our Senators Learning: Simple Resolutions

When the Senators were asking questions of the three candidates for Speaker last week, they asked some really good questions. We were impressed with the quality of the questioning having listened to that meeting's recording. They were focused on the task at hand, stayed on topic, paid attention to detail. They did a singularly magnificent job.

In part four of our series (part 1 and part 2), "Is Our Senators Learning," we will start to examine some of the nuts and bolts of legislation.

Executive Summary
Our Reader's Digest, condensed version:

• The resolutions adopted during the Senate's first meeting on April 15 all suffer from the same problem: they are not clear and specific
• The resolutions also don't do what they were supposed to.
• English verbs have many tenses; they are not equivalent.
  
• This wouldn't be so bad had the first meeting not been scripted.
  

Legislation comes in two flavors in the Senate (despite what the Senators may think given their "maybe" Rules [turns out that the Senate may not have actually adopted rules at its first meeting]). There are bills and resolutions. Only bills create law.

Resolutions are far more varied. The dictionary tells us that a resolution is "A formal statement of a decision or expression of opinion put before or adopted by an assembly." The ASUN Senate is an assembly. Resolutions can adopt Senate rules, state the position of the Senate on some issue, evidence many Senate decisions, elect officers, memorialize the Senate granting consent to an presidential appointment, discipline members, impeach officers, petition other governing bodies to do something--if you can think it, it probably can be a resolution.

At its first Senate meeting, the Senate adopts several resolutions. What distinguishes one resolution from another is what is in that resolution. Each resolution begins the same way. It can have a title, many (but not all) have preambles (Whereas...), and all begin the meat of the resolution with the resolving clause ("Resolved").

First Three Resolutions of a Session
Some of the simplest resolutions the Senate will adopt are during its first meeting. In fact, a law governs what the Senate must do at its first meeting (ASUN Public Law 75-49). They adopt a resolution electing a Secretary, a resolution directing a committee to inform the President that the Senate is organized and ready to proceed to business, and a resolution directing the Secretary of the Senate to notify the President of the election of a Speaker and a Secretary. The Senate literally copies and pastes, with appropriate changes, what the last session did.

Below is the text of three specimen resolutions that were prepared for the 77th Session to use. All they had to do was literally fill in the blanks, so to speak (we've already done that with what the Senate apparently decided).

RESOLUTION
Electing a Secretary of the Senate.

Resolved, That Alejandra Reyes be, and is hereby, chosen Secretary of the Senate.


RESOLUTION
Providing for a committee to notify the President the Senate is organized and ready to proceed to business.

Resolved, That a committee of two Members of the Senate be appointed by the Speaker to notify the President of the Associated Students that a quorum of the Senate has assembled and the Senate is ready to receive any communication that he may be pleased to make.


RESOLUTION
Authorizing the Secretary to inform the President of the Election of the Speaker and the Secretary of the Senate.

Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to inform the President of the Associated Students that the Senate has elected Gracie Geremia, a Senator from the College of Liberal Arts, Speaker; and Alejandra Reyes, a student from the Reynolds School of Journalism, Secretary of the Senate of the Seventy-Seventh Senate.

What the Senate Actually Adopted

A Resolution
Electing the Speaker of the Senate

Resolved, that Gracie Geremia was elected and will serve as the 77th Session Speaker of the Senate.

Short Title
This Resolution may be cited as the "Election of the Speaker of the Senate"


A Resolution Electing the Secretary of the Senate
Resolved, that Alejandra Reyes was elected and will serve as the 77th Session Secretary of the Senate.

Short Title
This Resolution may be cited as the "Appointment of the Secretary of the Senate"


A Resolution
Announcing readiness of the Senate

Resolved, that the 77th Session of Senate is now organized and ready for business

Explanation
The first resolution is unnecessary. The Senate elects a Speaker by roll call vote under the precedents and law. They don't consider one by resolution. Nominations are taken and a vote is had. The candidate who is first to a majority wins.

The second resolution, the one electing a Senate Secretary, is not in proper form. It is titled "Electing the Secretary of the Senate" but doesn't actually elect a Secretary. It says that a Secretary "was elected". Again, "was" is not the same as "is" or "be".

The third resolution ignored the precedents and practice of the Senate as well. It also ignored the law. It was supposed to direct the Speaker to appoint a committee (like the second specimen above) to inform the President that the Senate is organized. Speaker Geremia still appointed the committee, but the resolution under which she imagined that power didn't say that at all.

We recognize this are all really picky points, but the point we are trying to impress upon the Senators is that the process and form of matters is just as important as what is being done.

What Makes This All Worse...
The whole first meeting was scripted. We obtained a copy of the script that was prepared for the first meeting. All they had to do was read the lines and fill in the blanks. Below are links to the specimen resolutions provided to accompany the script.

(S. Res. 77-1 specimen)
(S. Res. 77-2 specimen)
(S. Res. 77-3 specimen)
(S. Res. 77-4 specimen)

Basically, if they had followed what the last session did and the session before that did, everything would've been peachy and we wouldn't have had the opportunity to write these posts.