AS senate tables confirmations

Debate over representation versus process continues within Associated Students

Luke Garrett / Editor in Chief / The USD Vista

Four newly-appointed senators – Wendy Martinez, Alanah Winston, MarGhece Barns, and Janelle Seguin – sat in the back row of AS Senate on Thursday, Nov. 8 with the expectation of being confirmed after four senators resigned from their positions. AS President Natasha Salgado nominated the students – all of whom are women of color – via email days earlier. 

Despite the By-Laws and Constitution permitting Salgado to do so, and previous senatorial nominees being confirmed with little discussion, the AS senate held the confirmation of Martinez, Winston, Barns, and Seguin until next week – the reason being to review a disparity within the By-Laws and Constitution concerning senate appointment.

At the outset of the AS meeting, AS Student Orgs Chair Charles Young, was quick to point out the disparity between the By-Laws and Constitution after motioning to remove the confirmation vote of the four appointed senators from the Nov. 8 agenda.

“Under of senate By-Laws it says that any seat that is open can be appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate,” Young said. “However, in our constitution it has the exact same phrase except it adds ‘elected senator.’ Therefore, we have senators to be replaced today that were not elected by students in the spring, but were appointed by this body this year.” 

Speaker of the Senate Tyler Warren denied the motion, an act that is similar in form to a veto that can be overridden by a two-thirds majority vote. With the AS meeting agenda confirmed, the senate ran its usual course until the confirmation of the four appointees came to the AS senate floor. 

Following brief introductions from the appointees, Young motioned a second time to hold off on their confirmation until the judiciary committee meets and addresses the disparity within the By-Laws and Constitution. The motion failed and discussion concerning the appointment continued. 

Senator Dean Lockwood voiced his concerns over the confirmation of the appointees.

“This represents a large shift in the balance of power,” Lockwood said. “The decision we are going to be making as a body is a decision we should be cautious in how quickly we just accept this in the way that we do.” 

This mention of quickness coaxed a number of senators to voice their own thoughts in support of Young’s previous motions to halt the confirmation. At this point Young spoke up again.  

“If there is a difference between what our By-law is saying and our constitution is saying we should be taking a look at that … that’s our duty,” Young said.  

No further discussion was had and the vote to confirm the four appointees failed. Soon after, Young – for a third time – motioned to table the appointment until next week for the judiciary committee’s review of the By-Laws and Constitution. The motion passed, but the meeting was far from over.

During final business, AS Chair of Inclusion and Diversity Vayunamu Bawa, who entered the meeting late after hearing that the confirmation was put on hold, asked clarifying questions about the denied senate confirmation and presented the senate with her critical thoughts. 

“You got all these potential senators to come in, expecting to be sworn in, and not be sworn in,” Bawa said. “I have never seen this happen.” 

AS Senator Jordan Rodriguez then spoke about her concerns of pushing back the confirmation of four women of color appointees.

“There are a lot of people that are concerned about (the senate suddenly denying confirmation of four women of color) and it’s not going to look good on the senate,” Rodriguez said. 

To this, Young was eager to respond. 

“I am in no way against bringing senators into this body,” Young said. “I think we need more senators. I just want to make sure that we are following all of our procedures – crossing our t’s dotting our i’s.”  

The debate over procedure versus representation, which has consistently faced AS this semester, continued until senators concerned the tabling of the appointee’s confirmation motioned for the senate to interpret the By-laws and Constitution then and there. Debate over the elected disparity being grammatical or meaning-based ensued. The former was voted for, which allowed for the senate to simply delete “elected” from the constitution – allowing for the confirmation of the appointees to assuredly occur next week. 

The AS senate then adjourned. One of the four appointees, Martinez, shared her take on the AS meeting.

“Being a part of senate for me was bringing a different voice, a different demographic, into that room that I don’t feel is being represented enough,” Martinez said. “For me, being there and pushing to be a part of senate is definitely important. I think me showing up and me coming back next Thursday after this bit of a humiliating meeting is important. It does show my commitment to this.”  

Martinez’s sentiment concerning the meetings was shared by the three other appointees, all of whom intend to go back to the senate for their confirmation. As of now, the confirmation of the appointees is set for Thursday, Nov. 15 and the four expect to be confirmed with the disparity between By-Laws and Constitution settled.