RUSA Minutes January 18th, 2018 7:30pm @ Student Activities Center *Statements are paraphrased and consolidated for the Minutes* *All legislation contained in the minutes may not be the final language.* 1. Call to Order a. @7:34pm 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Approval of Agenda a. Unanimously Approved 4. Approval of Prior Meeting s Minutes a. Unanimously Approved 5. Legislation a. The RUSA Elections Act of 2018 i. Presentation by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair ii. Motion to extend question time by 1 minute by Nick Tharney, RBGA Representative 1. Unanimously approved iii. Motion for unanimous consent to adopt technical amendments on power of sections on fall and spring elections by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair 1. Unanimously Approved iv. Motion to adopt amendment to funding limitations by Dan Chulak, University Affairs Chair 1. Motion to split the question between sections 3 and 4 by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair a. Unanimously Approved
b. Section 3 amendments i. Automatic Debate Procedure 1. Dan Chulak, For a. I believe that my numbers are more realistic and more congruent with numbers recorded in previous elections. These numbers are more than fair. 2. Viktor Krapivin, Against a. I support finance reform in the grand scheme of things; I support reforming our own regulations; I believe that a student could potentially sue us for enforcing a limit requirement; We are essentially violating free speech rights of students and candidates running in the elections; As a public university we should not be limiting free speech. 3. Nick LaBelle, For a. I didn t spend near the limit during the fall election. I don t believe that anyone will spend the limit. I welcome anyone to sue us and we will take them to court. 4. Jeff Zhang, Against a. We don t have to set our rules to our spending habits. The public candidate limits are much higher than this. It is not our duty to limit this free speech. ii. Motion for 5 minute unmoderated caucus by Dan Chulak, University Affairs Chair 1. Unanimously Approved iii. Motion to call the amendment to question
1. Passed (34-15-5-1) iv. Passed (29-17-4-1) c. Section 4 amendments i. Motion to change $10 to $50 by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair 1. Motion to call to question by Vlad Carrasco, LSC Representative a. Failed (32-17-3-1) 2. Automatic Debate Procedure a. Viktor Krapivin, For i. This is a restriction against association, another restriction on First Amendment rights. Keeping numbers the same for candidates and tickets does not restrict the right to association. I m sure some students can find a way to donate $50 to a campaign. b. Dan Chulak, Against i. I don t think that this is infringing on anyone s rights. The difference in values is to have a larger limit for tickets than for individual candidates. c. Paul Ziessler, For i. Candidates just don t spend too much money on this type of thing. However restricting expenditures restricts the ability of candidates to invest in higher voter turnouts. d. Nick LaBelle, Against
ii. i. I believe that having the smaller limitation value will encourage passionate students to ask their peers to also contribute to a campaign. This increases voting turnout 3. Motion for another standard debate by Nick Tharney, RBGA Reprsentative a. Failed (21-25-1) b. Vote Retaken c. Failed (17-34-1-1) 4. Motion for a 2 minute unmoderated caucus by Nick Tharney, RBGA Reprsentative a. Failed (17-38-1-1) 5. Automatic Voting 6. Passed (28-19-6) Automatic Debate Procedure 1. Dan Chulak, For a. I don't believe that elections should be won based on how much money a candidate can spend. I believe that a body which will serve students to the best of their ability requires fairer rules. Therefore I don't believe that reducing from $200 to $50 is a restriction. 2. Jeff Zhang, Against a. The more money that we, as RUSA and as a student body, the more publicity will be made for the election. This is also a free speech issue. If it were up to me, the limit would be larger or non-existent. 3. Nick LaBelle, For
a. Why would we not vote in a concurrent manner on the follow-up to an amendment that we just passed? 4. Nick Tharney, against a. We already have a limit against outside sources. The goal here is to create a long lasting document, I don't think $50 will hold in 5-10 years from now. Having more money can provide significant advantages on a federal level. In a local or student government election, it is more about support and less about this money. iii. Motion for a 3 minute unmoderated caucus by Adeel Ahmed, RCSA Representative 1. Failed (18-34-0-1) iv. Automatic Voting v. Passed (34-15-1) v. Motion to add a requirement for demographic of Appeals Committee by Vlad Carrasco, LSC Representative 1. Motion to make a grammatical change to the amendment and strike committee membership within clause by Viktor Krapivin, Internal Affairs Chair a. Automatic Debate Procedure i. Viktor Krapivin, For 1. We don t have accurate records through the years of who has been on each committee. If a person is nominated and seems to have a conflict of interest, their nomination can be questioned so this seems pointless. It is difficult as is to get full participation and restricting the pool of candidates as is. ii. Viktor Krapivin, For
vi. vii. viii. 1. Not used b. Unanimously Approved 2. Motion to table the amendment by Nick LaBelle, Cook Caucus Chair a. Passes (27-16-5) Motion to add sooner election result release timeline by Vlad Carrasco, LSC Representative 1. Does not receive a second Motion to add language keeping spring elections from occurring too close to spring break by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair 1. Unanimously Approved Motion to remove requirement for VP to have the same requirements as the President by Vlad Carrasco, LSC Representative 1. Automatic Debate Procedure a. Vlad Carrasco, For i. I believe that the language is restrictive to accessibility of these elections. This motion is on par with a bill for a Constitutional Referendum I will be requesting b. Chris Kay, Against i. I believe that there should be a requirement for experience to add to the continuity of this organization. A basic understanding of how we vote, how we operate, is essential. c. Nick Tharney, For i. Yes, there are requirements for experience in our federal government in the Constitution. As such, our restrictions should be limited to our Constitution. If students believe that a certain candidate is qualified and elect that person, then they should be able to serve. d. Dan Chulak, Against i. The Vice President is in a position where they can potentially act as the President. If the Vice President
becomes the President, then we are not following our own Constitution if the Vice President is not held to the same standard. 2. Motion for a 3 minute moderated by Vlad Carrasco, LSC Representative a. Failed (23-29-0) 3. Motion to extend speaking time by one minute and one speaker on the amendment by Christie Schweighardt, Vice President a. Failed (23-24-1-3) 4. Motion to add (Reserved) to the amendment to keep consistent numbering by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair a. Unanimously Approved 5. Motion for a 2 minute moderated caucus, 2 speakers, with one speaker being Christie Schweighardt by Natalie Settimo, SAS Senator At Large a. Failed (17-27-2) 6. Motion for a 2 minute unmoderated caucus by Vlad Carrasco, LSC Representative a. Failed (23-24-0) 7. Motion to call to question by Nick Tharney, RBGA Representative a. Unanimously Approved 8. Failed (24-25-5) ix. Motion for the previous vote be taken by roll call by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair 1. Needs 13 votes 2. Passes (17-31-2) 3. Record held by the Secretary and the Internal Affairs Committee a. Failed (25-30-2-0) x. Motion to add stipulation on the value of cryptocurrency by Adeel Ahmed, RCSA Representative 1. Motion to table by Dan Chulak, University Affairs Chair a. Passed (41-4-2-1)
xi. Motion to strike language in the Standing Rules amendments which would allow the Executive Committee to approve constitutional amendment ratification process by Scholastica Okoye, Off-Campus At-Large Representative 1. Motion for a 3 minute unmoderated caucus by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair a. Unanimously Approved 2. The Parliamentarian rules the phrase under question unconstitutional so it would not be followed regardless. 3. Unanimously Approved xii. Motion to call to question by Viktor Krapivin, Elections Committee Chair 1. Unanimously Approved xiii. Passed (40-3) (19th) 6. Officer Report a. Viktor Krapivin, Internal Affairs and Elections Committee Chair i. I m going to test posting the absence form after the meetings to see if there is a correlation for better attendance ii. Previous voting records are published on the RUSA IA website. iii. Thank you for passing the Elections Code iv. Information will be shared as it is decided upon and a final document will be published at the conclusion of planning v. Appeals can be made to rusa.elections@gmail.com and will be shared with the Elections Appeals Committee b. Suzanne Link, Legislative Affairs Chair i. We are currently working on the BOG initiative and the water quality initiative ii. Partnering with the University to deal with on-campus water quality iii. With the change in state government leadership we will be doubling efforts to get the BOG vote c. Julie Serrano, Senate Leader i. Senate is meeting tomorrow, please reach out concerns ii. You can t have a class on Friday and you should drop those classes if you do. d. Dan Chulak, University Affairs Chair
i. We will be meeting with DOTS on current concerns and meeting with Dining Services soon as well. Input is welcome. e. Jaidev Phadke, Big Ten Liaison i. This past weekend, 6 of us went the ABTS Winter Conference at MSU. ii. We learned about how other schools are combating HED, how they are increasing voting turnout, and other issues. f. Aneesh Deshpande, Academic Affairs Chair i. Meeting with Vice Chancellor Sifuentes tomorrow g. Claudia Marconi, Chief of Staff i. Office Hours will be starting next week. Please e-mail me if you didn t physically sign-up. h. Evan Covello, President i. We released a Fall Semester Report to the undergraduate students this evening. Please read it and encourage other to read it, i. Chris Kay, Parliamentarian i. Parliamentarian Ruling are currently being researched on the following subjects and you can e-mail me your input at parliamentarian.rusa@gmail.com : 1. The Constitutionality of expenditure limits for elections. 2. The rights of the public to access the results of the vote for the Meal Swipes for Charity 3. The eligibility of members of other student governments in running in an election j. Jessica Tuazon, Secretary i. E-mail me if you need an extension on the Workshop quizzes. They are due tonight. k. Christie Schweighardt, Vice President i. YES raised about $11,000 in the Fall through Meal Swipes for Charity ii. We will be increasing tabling in the Spring Semester 7. Advisor Report a. none 8. External Representatives Report
a. none 9. Public Sector a. Sara Bailey, WCC President i. Saturday is the Women s Day March and will be themed on getting out to vote b. Christie Schweighardt, Vice President i. Tonight we debated about elections for 2 and a half hours however we did not give critical thought like this to a lot of legislation put forth last semester. Moving forwards let s use this same process on this semester s legislation. c. April, NJPIRG i. Kicking off new anti-antibiotics campaigns and we have been speaking in classrooms this week. ii. Textbook campaign will be tabling tomorrow in front of CASC d. Jaidev Phadke i. The $11,000 YES raised is a huge sum of money for this non-profit and we gave them the ability to do that. 10. Adjournment a. @10:45pm 11. Caucus Meetings "Public notice of this meeting has been given to all undergraduate students requesting such notice. Please speak to the Secretary of the Assembly after this meeting to learn more about how you can join the email list to receive a 24 hour meeting notice and a copy of the Agenda."
RUSA Bill: S18-1 Authors: Viktor Krapivin Sponsor: Internal Affairs Committee, Elections Committee The RUSA Elections Act of 2018 Whereas, the Assembly believes that Election Procedures and Guidelines should put all candidates on an equal playing field, Whereas, an Elections Code exists as a static document that will serve to make all candidates on an equal playing field, Be it Hereby Resolved that: I. Article II, Section 6 of the Standing Rules is amended to read: A quorum must be present in order to conduct any official business at any General Body or Executive Board meeting. a. A quorum for General Body meetings is defined as one-third of voting members of the Assembly. For the Executive Board and Committee, quorum shall be defined as fifty percent plus one (50%+1) of the number of voting members. There shall be no quorum requirement for other committees; however, the Assembly may resolve to impose quorum requirements on specific committees, which shall not exceed the majority of the members of the committee. b. Neither the President, nor unfilled seats count for either the total number of members or the number of members present when establishing a quorum. II. Article XXI of the Standing Standing Rules is amended to read: 1. The Committees Constitutional Amendments will be formed as an ad-hoc Committee(s) of RUSA at least two months prior to the scheduled first day of polling at least two weeks prior to the scheduled first day of polling for referenda. 2. Committee on Elections
a. The Committee on Elections shall coordinate election of the President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Campus Caucus and Off-campus Caucus seats, as well as any other representative seats directly elected under the RUSA Constitution or requested to be elected by a Professional School or Residential College Council. b. No candidate may serve on the Committee on Elections for an election in which they are participating. The RUSA Internal Affairs Chairperson or co-chairpersons shall serve on the Committee as Elections Chairperson unless prevented by candidacy in the same elections, declining the position, or otherwise moved by the Assembly. c. The Elections Committee will be responsible for drawing up appropriate election specific documents and a cover letter for the election not inconsistent with the Constitution, these Standing Rules, and the Elections Code. 3. Committee on Constitutional Amendments a. The Internal Affairs Chairperson or co-chairpersons shall serve as the Committee on Constitutional Amendments Chairperson unless the position is declined or as otherwise moved by the Assembly. b. The Constitutional Amendments Committee will be responsible for drawing up guidelines for the RUSA constitutional amendment ratification process and a constitutional amendment cover letter and having them approved by the RUSA Assembly with a two-thirds majority vote. 4. The Committee on Elections Appeals a. The Committee on Appeals shall work in conjunction with the Committee on Elections prior to scheduled first day of polling for elections. b. No candidate may serve on the Committee on Appeals for an election in which they are participating. c. The RUSA President will appoint the Chairperson of the Committee on Appeals. Members of the Committee on Appeals may not also serve on the Committee on Elections. III. The Assembly strikes Article I, Section 9 of the Standing Rules. IV. The Assembly enacts the attached Elections Code to serve as the Election Guidelines for future elections.