PSSS Debates Meeting Times, Examines Organizational Effectiveness

James Kelly

He/Him

News Editor

11/20/24

An ultimately failed push to change Student Senate meeting structures reignited calls to reexamine the role of student government on campus. Monday’s meeting was the sixth in more than two months to include a discussion on meeting structures in its agenda, but the first to bring the issue to a vote.

Proponents of the change, led by University System Student Board Trustee Ethan Dupuis, claimed changing meeting structures would make the Student Senate more productive. Dupuis pointed to the delay in addressing the schedule question, which was pushed back for more than two months to accommodate negotiations on student fees and last meeting’s push for more student power, as evidence that the Student Senate was not operating effectively. “You can laugh at it or roll your eyes,” Dupuis said, “but the fact is what we’re doing now isn’t working.”

Dupuis, along with PSSS Treasurer Walter Farrar, advocated changing the current meeting structure, which is generally consistent week-to-week, to an alternating A-week/B-week system. Currently, agendas begin with reports, then guest speakers, old and new business, and finally constituent concerns. Under the new system – endorsed upon its introduction two weeks ago by Dupuis, Farrar, and 2026 Class President Hannah Lowell – meetings would start the same way every week with reports and guest speakers, but the second half of meetings would alternate between the current agenda, and designated time for committees and class councils to meet. 

On November 4th, Dupuis said the change was necessary because there isn’t adequate time for committees to meet outside of the regular Monday night meetings. “We had two [clubs] withdraw their CEA requests because [the finance committee] couldn’t find a time to meet,” he said. The discussion two weeks ago concluded with an assignment for each committee to discuss whether their meeting structures were working for them.

This Monday, other representatives pointed to the issue as something unique to the finance committee. Class of 2025 Treasurer Olivia Griffin, who sits on the activities committee, said she had decided there wasn’t any need for a change. Lowell agreed. “You knew what you were signing up for,” she said to Dupuis. “I feel like our meetings are working.” But Dupuis and Farrar objected to the categorization of the change as something specifically for the finance committee. “I can run my committee just fine,” Farrar said. 

Still, Dupuis argued that PSSS is most productive when they have designated breakout time, like last meeting’s extended recess wherein Dupuis and Student Body President Liam Leavitt drafted a resolution asking Cabinet for more student power. “If we’re given the time to hash out what we want to get done, student government is going to be a whole lot more effective,” Dupuis said.

. “I think it’s cool that we were able to recognize a new club, but I feel that’s all we do,” he said. “For the people who have been here longer than me, what have we done for the last few years?”

Some representatives appeared upset at Dupuis’s comments. “Just because we don’t do big things… it’s [still] worth coming here,” Lowell said. But to Dupuis, all PSSS was offering was “platitudes,” all they were doing was “ceremonial.” He didn’t mean for anybody to feel discouraged by his comments, he said. Instead, the conversation was “something fruitful” that led to an opportunity to analyze the role of Student Senate. “I don’t want it to be a putdown, I want it to be a call to arms,” Dupuis said. 

More broadly, opponents to the schedule change painted the proposal as a solution in search of a problem. Olivia MacLeay, Class of 2028 President, said a change would be confusing. “It would create more chaos,” she said. “There’s already so much chaos.” Class of 2027 President Quinn Haggerty worried that an agenda change would make it more difficult for PSSS to welcome guests, including new clubs seeking recognition. Replacing the new business section of the agenda every other week would only make PSSS less efficient, he said. 

Eventually, Parliamentarian Millie Cejka motioned for PSSS to vote to keep the meeting structure the same. Before the vote, Griffin suggested a compromise amendment which would have added a 20-minute breakout for committee meetings to the agenda each week. PSSS Speaker Will Loughlin called the amendment out of order. A vote to keep the rules the same cannot include an amendment to change the rules; that is contradictory, he said. Cejka’s original no-change motion was seconded by Haggerty and passed 9-3, with Dupuis, Farrar, and Secretary Rosella Rentas-Ubeda opposed.