The Undergraduate Congress passed legislation allowing for more flexibility in congressional district restructuring, among other pieces of legislation, in its April 7 meeting.
Author and associate Bailey Ownby said the redistricting bill would change the Student Government Association constitution to allow the number of congressional districts to fluctuate between 14 and 18, rather than the 16 congressional districts the constitution currently requires. Districts would be divided based on academic interests, and any changes to district makeup would have to be approved by three-fourths of the congressional body, according to the bill.
Ownby said this would make future elections more flexible, but the bill would not be effective until fall 2020, so the ongoing congressional elections won’t be affected.
Congress member Emily Tucker asked how the bill would affect larger districts, like the humanities district that she represents, especially if those districts absorb smaller ones. Co-author and congress parliamentarian Malachi Bouch said that would likely never happen, but that in the past, district splitting has actually been beneficial for the affected districts.
Vice chair Mahak Merchant said congress currently tries to maintain a ratio of 500 students to one representative, and asked if Ownby sees that ratio changing. Ownby said many colleges haven’t been maintaining that ratio, as they have had too many or too few students, and those issues will be brought up in the redistricting process.
Ownby said the redistricting process takes place every other year, and all representatives have a say in it. Bouch said the makeup of districts change with each redistricting process, and this bill would just allow the number of districts to change as well.
The bill passed with a roll-call vote of 28-0-0.
The congress also passed a bill negating registered student organizations’ negative fiscal history for this academic year.
Author Lauren Patton said the bill was a way of rewarding student organizations with positive fiscal history without punishing student organizations for negative fiscal history because of the coronavirus outbreak. She said she’ll be discussing how to notify the organizations of the change with SGA adviser George Ahmadi.
The congress then passed the Sooner Freshman Council Education Act, authored by congress member Foster Hillis. The bill created a requirement that all Sooner Freshman Council members attend one full meeting of any of the SGA branches per month, as well as meet with a representative from the executive, legislative and programming branches by the end of their first semesters.
Hillis said freshmen usually join Sooner Freshman Council because they’re interested in SGA, but many haven’t been to a full SGA meeting, so this would allow them to do so.
Merchant referred to wording in the legislation stating that Sooner Freshman Council members are required to attend one full meeting a month “as reasonable,” and asked who decided what was reasonable. Hillis said that phrase wasn’t in his original clause, but that decision would be up to the Sooner Freshman Council co-chairs.
The congress saw a bill granting associates speaking privileges in congressional executive sessions, which was also authored by Hillis. Hillis said only representatives are currently allowed in executive sessions, but they see impeachment votes, no confidence votes and elections in those meetings.
The bill would only allow associates in the room during impeachment votes and votes of no confidence, not during elections, Hillis said.
Hillis said associates and representatives are all under the same executive committee in SGA, and associates have different perspectives on that leadership. Because of that, he said, associates are important to hold those leaders accountable.
Congress member Hennessey Chism said she was concerned about the bill because associates aren’t in the SGA constitution and are only given privileges through the congressional bylaws. She asked if Hillis is willing to wait until associates can be added to the constitution for a vote on his bill.
Hillis said he thinks associates should be added to the constitution eventually, but he doesn’t think it’s necessary for his bill. Parliamentarian Bouch said the bill doesn’t touch the SGA code annotated or constitution, and it would just be amending congressional bylaws.
Chism said the congressional vice chair is the head of the associates program and asked why all associates need to be allowed in executive sessions when the vice chair can attend. Hillis said the vice chair doesn’t represent the views of all associates, and it would be difficult to hold the vice chair accountable for representing associates’ concerns accurately.
The congress then moved into a time for debate on the bill.
During this time, associate Jody Farmer said she supports the bill because associates were selected by members of congress to be a part of congress.
“You looked into what we put forth, you interviewed us, I think you all put in a lot more work than just what is going through for elections,” Farmer said to members of congress. “We’re here for a reason. You selected us for a reason. So I think it’s very important that we’re still allowed to have our word.”
Hillis thanked congress for participating in discussion at the end of the debate. The bill passed with a roll-call vote of 17-9-0.
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