ASI president's proposal sparks debate

By Terran Odell
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

The Cal State Long Beach ASI Senate convened for their 11th meeting of the semester yesterday to discuss, among other issues, the proposed bylaw amendment.

The bylaw would give the ASI president the ability to more easily create cabinet positions and appoint members to them.

Many senators questioned the purpose of the bylaw and wondered why the legislation had made it to the Senate floor in the condition that it was in. Senator Estee Sepulveda offered her explanation. "Different presidents have different priorities," she said. Sepulveda said that the bylaw would allow for more flexibility with the changing presidents. Every president has different priorities and goals, and the bylaw would allow for the ease of implementing such goals. But all members in attendance did not necessarily view allowing for flexibility as an advantage.

Dr. Matt Taylor argued during the discussion of the by-law that it would take away stability within the workings of the legislative and executive branch. "I think the president has an incredible amount of authority," Taylor said. "I think the students would be better served with some stability."

Some senators disliked the piece of legislation claiming that the president already was given the powers to accomplish such tasks.

The legislation was the topic most widely discussed during the meeting, and as it was pointed out by Senator-at-Large Morgan Wheeler that the issue of the bylaw parallels the real workings of government.

"Its called checks and balances," Wheeler said. He also said the bylaw would allow for the president to bring in random students to the Associated Students and assign them tasks to fit his or her own agenda thereby taking away the power of the Senate to check and approve appointments of the president. "I don't think we should give the president the ability to just appoint people," he said.

Current ASI President Mike Johnson defended the necessity of the bylaw.

"The president should have the ability to be flexible," he said. Johnson feels that the amendment would allow for the running of his and future presidents' cabinets to happen more smoothly. Although Johnson supports the bylaw, he made the point that he is not trying to take away any power from the Senate.

The discussion of the bylaw that garnered the most attention during the meeting was given the motion to be sent back to the bylaws committee to be re-worded, but that motion failed to pass by a 5-11-1 vote of the senators present.

For now the bylaw was described as "dead," by Wheeler and some fellow senators, and the final fate of the bylaw is still to be decided.