On Tuesday, Sept. 26, the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming (ASUW) held their weekly senate meeting to discuss a funding request from the Indian Student Association (ISA) regarding an upcoming ‘Diwali Night’ event, two budget realignments, and Senate Bills #2897 and #2898 which surrounded the suspension of the College Council, and the proposed allocation of funds to facilitate ASUW’s move into a new office space and renovations of a conference room, respectively.
The Senate decided to approve the ISA’s funding request, passed both budget realignments discussing their merits, attaching an amendment to one of them, and unanimously voted to pass S.B #2897. However, most of the meeting was dedicated to a rigorous debate surrounding S.B #2898, which was authored by the Budget & Planning committee, and was sponsored by seven senators and the Institutional Development Committee. The bill, and an amendment added shortly before the meeting, proposes the allocation of $230,972.50 from the facilities Endowment.
Senators voiced their support or disapproval of the bill over the course of a nearly hour and a half debate. According to Sen. McGuire, a member of the Intersession Oversight Committee (IOC), the original proposalfor expenditures was “less than 150,000 dollars” further stating “that’s a considerable increase. And it doesn’t sit right with me that our final number came to use on the day that we’re passing this legislation.”
ASUW President Saber Smith also outlined his hesitancy to vote ‘aye’ on the bill, stating that “Jessica (Petri) and I ran on lowering internal spending, and we’re here to do just that. And we walked up to students saying hey, look at this ASUW spent this much money … those were five figure totals and every single student we talked to was frustrated. It doesn’t matter where they came from. They were frustrated that their student fee was going to things that we were spending money on ourselves and as a student government, it is our obligation to spend the money on our students.”
A large contention during this conversation was the lack of accessibility in ASUW’s current office space, with supporters of the bill saying this new space would be a good opportunity to rectify some of those concerns. Sen. Grimm, a supporter of the bill, stated “the office as it stands is not accessible, it is not an inviting space. While it may seem like that for an able bodied person, as someone in the past who has been incapacitated, this office is simply not accessible.”
While some senators voiced similar opinions on the merit of accessibility, others like Sen. McGuire took issue with that claim, stating “I don’t think that this necessarily is a tangible increase to accessibility. We’re still downstairs. We’re still in a building that is inherently designed in a fairly non-accessible way.” Sen. McGuire then followed this statement up by acknowledging that as an able-bodied person himself that he is speaking from the position of someone who has not had to deal with a lack of accessibility and that “ultimately it’s not my place to decide what is and is not accessible.” Following their debate, Senators voted to pass the bill, with 12 voting ‘aye’, 4 voting ‘nay’, and 3, including Sen. McGuire, abstaining. Nevertheless, President Smith ultimately killed the bill saying:“I am planning on vetoing Senate Bill #2898 and pursuant to Article One section one of the ASUW Bylaws I’ll come out with my written justification for it.”
The Branding Iron awaits for the publication of President Smith’s justification as of Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. The next ASUW meeting will be Oct. 3, 2023, at 7:00 p.m.
