Student government passed legislation Tuesday that will change the process by which new legislation is presented and voted on by the senate.
Senate bill S15-24 will change the voting process by giving senators at least one week to read and familiarize themselves with the bill and then vote on it at the following meeting.
Previous to this legislation, drafted by External Affairs Chief Tyler Livezey, a senator would present their bill, discuss it among the senate and then a vote would occur shortly after in the same meeting.
According to Livezey, these adjustments will allow senators to better understand what is being presented to them and allow them time to find out what the student body thinks.
“Students should be able to trust us to make [these] decisions,” Livezey said. “Not everything can be decided in one day. It’s also [the senators’] duty to get the opinions of other students. It’s important to go around your college and then be able to say ‘as a representative of the student body, I think they want this or they don’t want this.’”
Livezey also said that allowing students a week to read the legislation will allow them to make an independent vote instead of feeling pressured to vote the same way as other senators the same night.
“I think it will give time for people to think it over [and] I think it will allow room for debate,” Livezey said. “We’ve lacked debate this year, and debate is good, it’s the conjoining of ideas and you want to hear that stuff. Whenever people voice their opinions more, you always get a better product, so I think it’s important to get people involved in that.”
Livezey said he was inspired to author the bill after attending a city hall meeting. He said this way of presenting legislation is a replica of every other government system, whether it be city council or the national government.