A Republican would call this diversity

Silly me, I missed the bigger story related to the Diversity Unity Commission.

Charlie Jose
Unity Commission Chair

Rebecca Coleman
Unity Commissioner

Jenna Erickson
Unity Commissioner

Christy Markwell
Unity Commissioner

Nishelle Robbins
Unity Commissioner

Kristen Sroczynski
Unity Commissioner

Diversity Boxscore
Men: 1
Women: 5

Hispanic: 1
White: 5

Diversity indeed.

Sexual Diversity?

Could someone explain how hosting a sexual health week fits in with the mission of the ASUN Unity Commission? (Official ASUN page; formerly Diversity Commission; Unity Commission renaming law. Before that, there was a Diversity Department, headed by its own director, charged with executing a diversity week, but that law was repealed.)

The function of the Commission is to plan and execute a diversity week along with other unspecified "diversity initiatives." The Commission says its mission is to "promot[e] understanding, communication, and respect among all members of the university community" and to "recognize the value of difference and to stimulate an exchange of perspectives between people of varying races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, socioeconomic statuses, cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences." In short, "[w]e strive to break social stereotypes."

It seems a bit of a stretch to link sexual health and breaking social stereotypes. What stereotypes are we breaking? Embrace UNR's shockingly high STD rates? Individuals with AIDS are people too? Rape: it's not just for men? Black and brown people can use condoms, too? Virgins: the new sluts? I know I'm being flippant about delicate and serious issues, but these things don't seem to mesh well with promoting diversity among the university community. Maybe they're having a hard time coming up with ideas on how to spend their $13,000. Or maybe Charlie Jose needs something recent to point to as an accomplishment during his presidential election campaign.

If I recall correctly, sexual heath programming used to be something Flipside did. So what changed? Don't get me wrong, I think educating college students about sexual health is a worthy activity. I just question whether it has anything to do with diversity.

Wasteful Spending

President Reilly recently sent a proposal (warning: .doc file) to Senator Hostmeyer, Chair of the Committee on Budget and Finance. He is asking for $5,000 for the purchase of WAC Basketball Tournament tickets and nearly $8,200 so ASUN can pay for the replacement suits for Alphie and Wofie.

I'll address my concerns regarding purchasing new mascot outfits. In 2009, Athletics was to receive $7 million from the state, with $2 million going to athletic scholarships.¹ The department ended up with around $5.85 million.² The department also expected to generate $17 million in self supporting revenue.³ The figure to date is $15.1 million.⁴

What's my point? ASUN has a budget that sits at a little over 10% of the athletic budget. Yet ASUN can afford an expenditure of $8,200 but athletics can't? I'm dubious. But, let's accept the premise. Then, we can conclude ASUN has more money than it knows what to do with, if 9 months into a term it has that much money lying around. This is just one example of many of why ASUN does not need more money. Note, this money is not coming out of the contingency fund, but the nearly $30,000 that still remains uncommitted. Thirty-thousand dollars out of a discretionary fund of somewhere around $600,000.

I would personally like to see the top coaches and department heads, all of whom make make very nice six-figure salaries sacrifice a little for the respect of Nevada. How very populist of me.⁵

I won't say much on the $5,000 for WAC tournament tickets other than that I paid for my own tickets back in 2006, and I'm pretty sure there was not an inadequate supply of similar minded fans. This is, in my mind, just another example of wasteful, unnecessary, hard to justify spending. But, when you have more money than you know what to do with, it's easy to throw it at things. Like the geniuses over at SFL.

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References

¹ Parker and Shively, "University Budgets: A Guide for the Perplexed", 2009.

² 2009-2010 State Appropriated Budgets.

³ Parker and Shively, 2009.

⁴ 2009-2010 Self-Supporting Budgets. (warning: .xls (Excel) file)

⁵ Executive Salary Schedule.

Senatorial Compensation Act is unconstitutional without student vote

In 2008, ASUN voters approved a ballot measure to grant to the Senate the authority to set senator compensation at a maximum of a $500 grant per semester in addition to the equivalent to the cost of 14 undergraduate credit hours per year (in 2008, that equated to almost $2,700 at the maximum). ASUN Public Law 75-42. See also Senate Report on the bill here. That question passed by the requisite majority. See election results certificate here. The Senate never acted on this authority.

Tonight the Senate considered a bill to implement the authority the voters granted back in 2008. There's just one problem: this might not be constitutional.

The ASUN Constitution states "The elected members of this government shall receive a compensation to be set by law. Any increase in compensation will take effect after the next intervening general election, which shall be subject to approval by a majority vote of the students voting in the election on that question." ASUN Const. article I, section 1(e). Broken into its component parts, in order:

1. Compensation set by law. The Senate passes a law.
2. Any increase cannot take effect until a general election intervenes. This means members of one Senate cannot raise its compensation knowing if they had been reelected. This is designed to limit corruption.
3. The voters must approve the law in the general election for it to take effect.

The problem is the law passed back in 2008 didn't actually set anything; it merely asked for authority for the Senate to do it later. This is a problem because nothing is set for the voters to pass judgment on. Furthermore, many years could pass between the time the authority was granted and the authority is acted upon, effectively depriving the voters of their review power.

Now, to be fair, the provision at issue in the Constitution is subject to several reasonable interpretations; indeed, at the time I supported the view the Senate is now acting on, that it is permissible to ask for the authority now and act on it later. But I now believe my reasoning then was flawed, and perhaps clouded by my proximity to the senatorial pay issue.

What if the Senate asked for the authority to set compensation at a maximum that, in its judgment, was reasonable? This is at the core of why what the Senate did in 2008 is not permissible. Nothing was set. The only difference in the two situations is in the one the Senate asked for authority bound by an upper cap and in the other there is no cap, but in neither case is anything set, fixed, determinate.

The phrase "set by law" as used in the Constitution implies a determinate figure, not some indeterminate permission to "set by law" the actual compensation in the future, so long as the voters agree. Should this bill pass, which is a poor judgment call after University President Glick told the senators tonight the University is facing budget cuts that will set the campus back at least a decade, it should be challenged in the Judicial Council and held invalid.

And we're so humble, too

You're welcome. In fact, were it not for our posts on this subject, CABNR would probably still have its single seat for another two decades. I might as well go ahead and state the obvious.

VLEG: Where the Nevada Sagebrush turns to for ASUN News.
VLEG: The ASUN Instruction Manual.

ASUN Veep Charlie Jose drops race before it begins?

Seriously? What's going on here? ASUN Vice President Charlie Jose filed for election for president, but his name no longer appears as a candidate. If Jose does not run, this practically ensures a win for Casey Stiteler, the Director of Programming.

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UPDATE on Jan. 29. 2010 at 2:44 p.m.
Observation of the ASUN election Web site indicates Charlie Jose may have decided to reenter the race. His name once again appears as a candidate. The filing deadline is 5 p.m. today, so this may change once again, and even once the filing period closes, a candidate has some time to have his name removed from the ballot.

Unity Commission

I’m flabbergasted by the Unity Commission on Diversity. I see Charlie Jose has uploaded an image to Facebook that reads: “BECAUSE ASUN DOESN’T HAVE TO BE SO CUT THROAT AND POLITICAL.” I can’t even imagine what this is supposed to promote. Cut throat and political are not two of the first words that I would use to describe ASUN. Here are, I think, better ones:

• Wasteful
  
• Incompetent
  
• Mismanaged
  
• Petty
  
• Corrupt
  
• Pointless
  

According to the helpfully misnamed ASUN Informed Blog (run by the current speaker Germinia Gracie and not updated since October, 2009) the ASUN Diversity Commission received $6,500 for “projects” which, as far as I can dig up, so far has been limited to reminding people that ASUN Vice Pres. Jose Charlemagne is not a “chink.” I guess in their new campaign they are also trying to break “social stereotypes.”

The stereotype I wish they would break is that student government nerds are useless, self-important, wasteful bureaucrats.

Judicial Council rebukes President, Senate

In a rare use of its constitutional power, the ASUN Judicial Council Wednesday unanimously ordered the Election Commission to implement a new apportionment scheme for Senate seats. In an unsigned order (meaning no single justice claims authorship), the Council found that both ASUN President Eli Reilly and the 22-member Senate failed to carry out their constitutional and legal responsibilities to apportion the seats in the Senate for the next two sessions.

According to population figures, the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources is entitled to a second seat, at the expense of one seat in the Division of Health Sciences. This shift is due to increased enrollment in CABNR degrees, primarily as a result of realignment of degree programs in the past year.

The ASUN Constitution requires the Senate to reapportion its seats every two years based on the number of students in each college and school. In 2008, the Senate passed a law delegating this function to the President, requiring him to transmit to the Senate by the first week of December every two years a statement showing the population in and the number of seats to which each college and school is entitled.

The Council found President Reilly failed to carry out his duty, noting that he does not dispute he failed to do his duty--indeed he readily admitted to the Council in writing of such failure. Further, since the deadline the Senate set has lapsed, the Council found that the Senate failed to accomplish its constitutional duty as well.

The Council's order indicates that it became independently aware of this situation. VLEG was the first to report on this issue. Neither the Senate nor President Reilly have commented on their failures.

The order directs the Election Commission to publish the new seat distribution in the Nevada Sagebrush and in election packets immediately. As of today, the numbers on the ASUN election web page are correct, but there is no indication it is because of the Council's action. Indeed, there is no record of the order on the ASUN Web site. The order was obtained only after VLEG requested the order directly from the Council.

There is no record of the Council ever exercising this power before Wednesday. This power existed under the previous ASUN Constitution, which voters revised in 2007.

Since filing for election to the Senate closes next week, the Judicial Council's order should have no effect on the election. Experts believe that the Council decided to act now rather than after the election so as to not prejudice any candidate's chances for election.

In Re Reapportionment Order 1-20-2010

Last week to file, most races empty or uncontested

As of 3 p.m. today, only one college will have a competetive Senate race in the upcoming ASUN Election on March 10-11. The Reynolds School of Journalism, which is entitled to one seat, has two candidates filing for candidacy. Info on who has filed is available here.

Worse, three colleges--Business (three seats), Education (two), and Science (two)--have no candidates filed at all. That's seven seats--or about one-third of the Senate--that will sit vacant come April, unless more candidates file by the deadline, Friday at 5 p.m. If that vacancy rate remains, the Senate must hold special elections to fill those vacancies.

There will be a primary for the presidency, as three candidates have filed. It remains to be seen if the decline in candidates is due to the $50 filing fee implemented last year or if it is because marketing efforts are failing. Last year 50 candidates ran for the 22-member Senate. So far, only 14 candidates have filed this year.

Sad.

Right to a speedy trial

In my inbox today, 10 months* after filing complaints, about 7 months after the last contact I received from the Judicial Council:

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Over the last semester, the Council has gone through its rough patches in organization and efficiency, but as the Council begins a new semester and with far more organization with our work, it is very important that we make sure every lose end is tied. In May of 2008, 6 cases were filed on your behalf, raising a variety of issues regarding ASUN. As we, the Council, look at our docket, it is very important that we fulfill with our duties as part of being representatives of the University of Nevada, Reno. Your cases are still pending decision. The line is thin now on whether or not it makes sense to begin any discussion on your filings, 1. because of the time frame from filing to present, and 2. your status as a graduated student, meaning you are no longer part of the Association, although you were at the time of the original filings. It is not fair that the Council make the assumption that you no longer wish to continue your cases against certain actions of ASUN, therefore we are asking for you stance on your filings, and whether you wish to withdrawal some or all of your cases at this point in time. If you do wish to continue, you must find a spokesperson, who is in fact a member of the Association at this present time and continue with the charges at hand. The date by which this is necessary is FEBRUARY 3, 2010. If by that time, I have not heard from you and you fail to find a spokesperson, the Council will meet to discuss further action and dismissal of your filings. I appreciate your time, and hope to hear from you soon.

Respectfully,

Ebeth R. Palafox
ASUN Chief Justice

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Any takers?

[Edit: was 10.5 months, closer to 10 months]

BREAKING: Judicial Council to reapportion Senate

In an incredibly rare exercise of its constitutional power, the ASUN Judicial Council will issue an order to reapportion the Senate, due to the failure of both the ASUN President and Senate to satisfy their constitutional duties, sources close to the Council said this evening. We'll have the order once it's made available to us. We were the first to discuss this issue here.

UPDATE 1/21/2010: The ASUN Website appears to be offline, and we have not yet received a copy of the order. If this experience is any indication, I suppose I shouldn't expect to see the order for seven months or so.

Trying to solve the wrong problem

Tonight the Senate will resume consideration of a bill to create a codified version of ASUN law, the ASUN Revised Statutes. I have previously discussed the bill here. In light of the President and Senate's joint failure to follow the ASUN Constitution and laws on reapportioning the Senate (discussed here), it has become ever more clear to me that Sen. Sean Hostmeyer's bill is unnecessary.

The bill is in fact trying to solve the wrong problem. And, beyond that, the bill will exacerbate the problem that does exist: no one knows the law, and no one is willing to invest the time and energy required to acquire a basic understanding of just what is governed by the law, much less the nuances. Until that problem is solved, everything else is just ugly window dressing.

When the President outright fails to do the duty clearly outlined in statute to report to the Senate the population figures in each college and school and, based upon those figures, the number of seats each college and school is entitled, it indicates he either had no clue a law existed giving him that duty (worst case) or he willfully decided to ignore it (best case). I call willful negligence best case because at least it wasn't willful ignorance. Worse, no senator has, to our knowledge at least, caught this oversight (an overly charitable term, given the circumstances).

The problem isn't that the law is scattered all over the place in several different acts. The problem isn't that bills amending prior law make it difficult to keep the law up-to-date. The problem isn't that all law should be in one place. The problem isn't that the law is inaccessible. No, the problem is much more fundamental. If you don't take the time to find out what law exists, you are in a hopeless position. It's like trying to explain how to tie a shoe to a person who has no conception of what a shoe is, or like asking a blind person to tell you what the color blue looks like. Without a conceptual understanding of the world surrounding them, the best we can expect the senators to do is muddle along.

The problem is the senators and other ASUN officials do not take the time necessary to survey the law for themselves, to take notice of what is spelled out in law, and what is not. After all, with respect to government, the law is just an instruction manual. It tells you what, when, and how to do something. But if you're ignorant of the law, that something will never get done until enlightenment occurs. This reapportionment debacle is case in point.

Before creating another level of complexity, which is all this codification bill really does, the senators and officers need to go back to the basics. Only when the players in this game have mastered the basic skills should they attempt to tackle more complex issues. Listen to any Senate meeting and it is readily apparent that no one has mastered the basics, yet they all share a duty to represent the students, and representing the students implicitly means knowing the basics.

The Senate is not only an extracurricular activity, not only is it something one volunteers to do, but it is essentially a job, a public job. The voters gave them their trust that they'd do a good job. As with any job, a good employee needs to make an effort to be minimally competent at the job. The fact is no senator is, despite all their self-aggrandizing talk about how much good they do for students.

This is a cyclical problem. It has happened in years before I was a senator, it has happened in years since I was a senator, and it will continue to happen until the powers that be make revolutionary changes to how senators are orientated, how they learn what their job is, and how they learn the special skills necessary to be successful senators.

The perennial defense of my criticisms is that I expect too much of them; after all, they are only students. That is true, they are students. So why don't they act like students and start learning?

Election season kicks off...with two fails?

The annual ASUN election cycle is a story of one debacle after another. In the past several years, elections have been mired in procedural and substantive errors, including questionable ballot counting practices, wholesale negligence with respect to following election rules, and officers who fail to perform their duties, but I have a feeling that this year will take the cake.

Already we have reported about two failed attempts of the Election Commission to meet this year, under the inspired leadership of a failed vice presidential candidate and former senator who was censured for Open Meeting Law violations, Jeremiah Todd. [UPDATE: A scheduled third meeting apparently happened, but a fourth meeting won't since the agenda never made it online. So the Commission has successfully held only 25 percent if its scheduled meetings this year.] Already we have reported on ASUN President Eli Reilly's failure to follow the law on Senate apportionment. Tonight we have proof.

This facebook page has surfaced stating the number of seats each college is entitled in the next Senate session. [UPDATE 1/20/2010: A more official source, the ASUN web site, contains the same info.] Notice anything wrong? CABNR gets screwed out of its new seat. According to the fall 2009 undergraduate headcount figures, CABNR is entitled to a second seat at the expense of one of the Division of Health Sciences seat (see our analysis here).

Unfortunately, since President Reilly never bothered to run the numbers and transmit them to the Senate, we're operating under an erroneous apportionment scheme. It's pretty sad considering we did all the hard work (30 minutes worth, tops) and even gave an example of what an appropriate statement looks like in our post here. Practically all that was required was to fill in the blanks.

Perhaps the Judicial Council will exercise its constitutional power under Article IV, section 2(d) to take over the apportionment process. [UPDATE 1/19/2010: We have received credible information that the Judicial Council is in fact examining whether to exercise its constitutional power and duty in this matter.]

Candidate packet misreports the law
The election packet misreports the Election Code. It does not include the amendments that were made to the code in the 76th Session that were scheduled to take effect in this election. Don't forget that the legal status of those amendments, among most everything else that came out of the 76th Session, was seriously in question, but was never resolved. (Hint hint to some enterprising candidate. Filed documents available here. Second hint: the issues in the cases are still viable.)

If anything, since record keeping is so abysmally poor from the 76th Session forward, good luck trying to determine what is law and what is not. Heck, even the government won't publish an accurate, up-to-date compilation of the Election Code (that link is now two elections old and no active links point to it--it took a Google search to unearth it).

And don't even get me started on the constitutional amendment that the voters ratified but still hasn't been included in the document.

Any bets on whether the Sagebrush has picked up on any of this. Or maybe they've made it policy to ignore ASUN entirely.

So if the goal is to out-do (in a bad way) past elections, this election is off to a commendable start.

Peace and love.