The proposal of legislation to rearrange MUSG senators’ duties and create a new executive board position created unease at Monday’s meeting.
The meeting escalated when senior Senator Roberto Santos attempted to introduce a new 10-page legislation that essentially shifts around the senators’ duties. It also creates the position of student organization vice president.
The proposal followed the passing of a separate legislation to hold senators more accountable for their attendance at senate meetings, which passed with a unanimous decision.
“It’s a time-sensitive issue and that’s why I was so passionate about talking about it tonight,” Santos said. “This is so big that it’s not something that can be done in a day.”
The motion was not entertained by Legislative Vice President Ricky Krajewski, but Santos overturned the decision by calling the senate into a committee of a whole. The move overturned the LVP’s decision and allowed the senators to vote on debating the proposal.
The motion lost the majority vote, but stirred some emotions in the senate.
MUSG Senator Christian Evans spoke out about the senate’s internal conflict after Santos attempted to push the legislation to the floor.
“We need to understand each other and let each other speak,” Evans said. “To try to get things on the floor and to get out your own agendas without getting the voice of other senators is not how things should be done. It’s not productive and it’s not for the betterment of the school.”
Santos’ legislation was originally brought forward to the Legislation Committee for review and was not accepted.
Normally, legislation is brought forward to the committee to be reviewed and edited if need be. If the legislation is denied, senators have to wait a week before resubmitting.
Santos hoped to bring the plan forward this week so senators could begin thinking about it. He said timely approval of the plan would impact future elections and senators.
“If I was running for a position, I would want to know exactly what my duties would be,” Santos said. “I wouldn’t want to run and then, ‘Oh wait, all of my duties are changed.’”
The meeting also re-addressed the tobacco-free policy created by MUSG last year. It will be presented to the Academic Senate this Thursday.
A concerned student also took the floor. Gabrielle Hanke, a senior in the College of Business Administration, asked the senate for answers on the recent issue with a Marquette faculty member attempting to block students from attending the Ben Shapiro event.
“This was something done against students and we deserve an explanation,” she said. “This goes against everything we believe in at Marquette.”
Senate members and MUSG President Adam Kouhel were unable to provide reassurance for what Marquette would do about the situation.
“There are internal investigations happening,” Kouhel said. “I don’t know the extent of disciplinary action being taken since it’s a personnel issue.”
