Members of the Tempe Undergraduate Student Government Senate voted Tuesday to create a mission statement for the representative committee, a move that all Senators agreed was necessary for their transparency in the future.
Senate Bill 27, which was voted upon unanimously, created a mission statement that would clarify the organization purpose of the Senate and outline the values and vision of the legislature.
“We, the USG Senate of ASU Tempe, serve the student body by encouraging and exercising civic and university engagement, establishing an environment conductive to academic development, sustaining collaborative efforts between all representative bodies, maintaining accountability through transparency. As undergraduate student body representatives, we promise to pursue legislation that directly affects the student body in our capacity as students. Above all, we pledge to prioritize the interests, needs and concerns of the Undergraduate Tempe student body.”
"This mission statement is meant to clarify to our constituents exactly what our vision is for the upcoming year," Senator Cristian Torres said.
Senator Kanin Pruter said the mission statement will help determine Tempe USG's position on international and national topics such as last year's bill to recognize the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which was vetoed on the Senate floor by then-President Cassidy Possehl.
"I know last year those senators and individuals in Undergraduate Student Government last year noticed the Armenian Genocide bill that went to the floor and was vetoed," he said. "The reason President Possehl vetoed the bill was that it didn't correlate with her view of Undergraduate Student Government."
Pruter quoted the part of the mission statement clarifying that all Tempe USG legislation should be directly related to students and not deal with international and national issues.
Senate President Nicholas Haney said a set mission statement would help determine the Senators' jurisdiction over certain or unstated issues.
"Although intentions may be good, sometimes the bylaws are very vague and sometimes it's a struggle to find the direction of where they need to go," he said. "On this mission statement, it will help give you guys some direction and hold you guys accountable, not only to your constituents, but also to your fellow Senators to make sure we're doing the most good that we possibly can within our Senate."
Senators need to focus on changing issues for students on campus and not straying away from issues that they have jurisdiction over, Haney said.
Senator Alex Arena brought up the discussion to completely cut event funding for promotional T-shirts, a matter that immediately divided the Senate. Arena said he wanted to make this change because he feels the event funding can be more appropriately distributed to more important matters.
"I think, for the most part, they really don't play a role in any activity other than a souvenir and I don't think we should be in the funding-souvenirs business," he said. "I think we can get better events, fund more student activities by getting rid of this."
Sharon Martin, a representative with Sun Devil Paws Therapy, also stood up in front of the Senate to explain a possible program to implement at ASU's Tempe campus. Sun Devil Paws Therapy is an organization that brings trained puppies and dogs on campus to help relieve stress, increase happiness levels on campus and introduce students to a new version of therapy.
Reach the reporter at Jlsuerth@asu.edu or follow @SuerthJessica on Twitter.
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