Wednesday, October 25, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
7
Senators debate meaning of fewer pieces of legislation
By Krusten Phelps
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff write
Student Senate meetings have been brief recently because of a small amount of legislation, but senators say they're still getting work done.
During its two October meetings, Senate considered seven pieces of legislation, down from 12 last October and 17 in October of 1998.
"I've noticed that there's less legislation, but I'm not sure that Senate is doing less work," said J.D. Jenkins, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator. "Senate has changed its focus toward other projects that don't necessarily involve legislation."
Most bills pushed through Senate allocate money to student organizations, and Jenkins said senators couldn't introduce funding bills unless organizations come to a senator requesting money.
"I don't know why the numbers are down, but I wouldn't be concerned unless we get farther into the year and we still only have three bills a week," Jenkins said.
Marlon Marshall, student body vice president, said Senate was working on a slew of projects that didn't require passing a bill. Those projects include a program to allow Daisy Hill residents to use their
meal plans at the Kansas Union and Wes coe Terrace, an a p art m en t guide, student discounts at local businessse
and Senate outreach efforts.
"I'm not saying that legislation is a bad thing, but we're getting a lot of stuff done that you might not see in Senate's actual meetings," he said.
Another benefit of a lack of legislation, Marshall said, was that meeting time could be dedicated to discussing other issues like the city's proposed housing ordinance and senators' goals for their constituencies.
But Erin Simpson, off-campus senator, said she looked forward to longer meetings that addressed more legislation.
"I think the real problem is that 45
minute meetings make people think that's how long meetings are supposed to be and that people are going to be ants, thinking they need to be out of there by 8 o'clock," she said. "Sometimes you get done early and sometimes you need to stick around and hash things out, even when it's mundane or nasty. We're there to fix problems."
Katie Bartkoski, a Student Rights committee member who has been involved in Senate for three years, said she looked at the slow trickle of legislation in two ways.
Last year, she said, a lot of the bills introduced were "kind of nit picky, changing rules and regulations to change little things that would in theory make things run more smoothly."
On the other hand, she said it also seemed like more senators took up issues and introduced legislation to address them.
"It's hard to say why there's not as much," Bartkoski said. "There's got to be issues out there. Maybe somehow there's some apathy on the part of some senators."
-Edited by Kathryn Moore
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