ASUA Senate pledges to stop rule suspension

"From now on, it will not happen again," said Casey Cuny, Associated Students executive vice president and Senate chair.

"It's just a bad idea and I hate doing it," he added.

ASUA so far has had five Senate meetings this semester. In two of those meetings, senators suspended the rules to vote on unannounced topics and to change discussion order of agenda items.

The agenda must be released 24 hours prior to an official meeting.

Suspending the rules means that all senators agree to not follow the ASUA Constitution, which dictates voluntary compliance with Robert's Rules of Order and Arizona open meeting laws.

Robert's Rules are general regulations governing parliamentary procedure. Open meeting laws govern all meetings of public bodies.

"It isn't a good thing to do (suspend the rules)," ASUA adviser Jim Drnek said. "They shouldn't do it all the time."

ASUA President Gilbert Davidson, last year's Senate chairman, said suspensions should be used in extraordinary cases.

"It's something that should be used only in emergencies, and especially not when large money issues are involved," he said.

Open meetings laws state that public bodies may decide, discuss or consider only items on the agenda.

Last year's Senate ran into problems last April when members voted to suspend the rules and reconsider the Associated Students with Disabilities classification as a program and service.

ASD members said they were unaware of the discussions and were not able to attend the meeting.

Members of the Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Association were informed a half hour before another April Senate meeting that their membership as a program and service would be discussed.

ASD was cut and later that year reincorporated. BGALA remained unchanged.

The 1997-98 Senate also violated these laws on Sept. 3 during their second meeting this semester.

ASUA adviser Drnek said the new Federal Relations Director, Andrew Hayden, should be confirmed before attending the ASUA retreat the following weekend.

The confirmation was made too late to be posted to the agenda, and Sen. Stephanie Lyons moved to suspend the rules, which the Senate unanimously approved.

After the appointment was approved, the body then moved back to its posted agenda.

Drnek said he wanted all directors approved before the retreat for liability reasons, and that was the reason to rush.

However, when the co-directors of the Women's Resource Center were approved last week, the Senate again suspended its rules to move their approval to the bottom of the agenda.

The reason this time: Administrative Vice President Tara Taylor had not arrived at the meeting.

Cuny said he is making some changes to prevent the suspensions from happening again.

"I've made a form so that if anyone wants something on the agenda, they have to have it to me by Tuesday," he said. "Otherwise it won't get on."