A group of 16 applicants met in the ASUI office Wednesday for a meet-and-greet before official interviews are conducted and the four open senate seats are filled next week.
ASUI Vice President Kelsy Briggs, who conducted her first senate meeting Wednesday, said she thinks the large number of applicants will make it easier for ASUI President Cruz Botello to choose the right people to fill the vacant seats.
“I’m excited to see who Mr. President Botello ends up picking for the positions,” Briggs said. “I think that it’s going to be a great year, and I’m excited for four new senators to be added to the team.”
Applicants ranged everywhere from freshmen to nontraditional students, such as junior Bruce Berry, 29, whose son came along to the senate podium as Berry implored ASUI during the open forum to consider the nontraditional student representation he could bring to the senate.
“I know that there’s people that need a voice, and a lot of times those people don’t really get that voice, more specifically on campus, the nontraditional students,” Berry said.
Many applicants stayed after the initial meet-and-greet to watch the senate meeting and introduce themselves formally at the open forum.
Applicants in attendance watched Senate Bill F16-02 die by a 6-5 vote after some debate.
The bill would have required the ASUI president to notify the vice president, the chief of staff, the director of policy and the senate at least 24 hours beforehand if they wish to resign. It would also have required the president’s successor to appoint a new vice president within two weeks of their acceptance of the position.
Sen. James Howard supported the bill, and said the amendment’s specific timelines would encourage business to move forward in a timely manner, as a courtesy to the rest of the senate.
Sen. Danny Bugingo, an Argonaut columnist, added to those statements.
“The rules as they stand … are very vague,” Bugingo said. “The intent of this addition was to add some kind of framework and some kind of procedure that could be pointed to and could be followed.”
But Sen. Tanner Beymer said sometimes rules are better left vague, and encouraged his fellow senators to vote the bill down. He said it would be hard to enforce a 24-hour rule on someone who no longer works for ASUI, and that additional timelines and rules were unnecessary for the senate to complete appointments in a timely manner.
ASUI Pro-Tempore Mattie Cupps echoed Beymer’s statement.
“We need to make sure that we are getting the best vice president that we can,” Cupps said. “And two weeks may put us in too much of a rush.”
The ASUI cabinet also met Wednesday, where ASUI lobbyist Rachel Miller announced plans to lobby at the Idaho State Capitol next spring on the issue of marking Title IX violations on student transcripts.
Title IX is a federal statute of the Education Amendments of 1972 that protects students from sex discrimination in school. The idea was first proposed last year by former ASUI President Max Cowan to include a student’s history of Title IX violations in their transcript.
Currently, an Idaho student convicted of sexual assault by their university may be expelled, but those charges may be included on their transcript, leaving a Title IX violator able to transfer to a different university without those charges on their transcripts.
“They already do it (mark transcripts) for plagiarism, so why aren’t they doing it for sexual assault?” Miller said.
This year, Miller will take a lead in carrying out the project by researching drafting legislation and eventually bring that legislation to the Idaho Legislature. The project still remains in its early stages.
Taylor Nadauld can be reached at