E&CR authorizes president to fill position
The positions of ASPSU vice president and multicultural affairs director were declared officially vacant by the Evaluation and Constitutional Review Committee (E&CR) Tuesday, allowing the organization to seek a replacement for Multicultural Affairs Director Jason Lowery, who resigned Friday.
As per ASPSU constitutional rule, former Vice President Dune Zhu’s position will remain vacant for the remaining two months of the governmental term.
Lowery’s vacant position will be filled before that date, the question before the E&CR being about the procedural requirements of the staffing.
“Since it’s a staff position she has jurisdiction over how she wants to fill it,” E&CR member Annie Stewart said.
ASPSU State Affairs Officer Miriam Gonzales pointed out that PSU and Student Activities and Leadership Programs (SALP) hiring guidelines still apply.
“[The hiring] is at the President’s discretion given she follows SALP and PSU hiring guidelines,” Gonzales said.
“We’ve always worked with our advisor on hiring,” Wallace said.
Questions about the administration of ballot questions led E&CR members to limit the scope of the discussions they can hold on a particular question.
“As far as approving ballot measure wording, that’s all we are concerned with,” E&CR member Michael Sean-Kelly said.
James Wright, another E&CR member, concurred.
“We are here to approve wording, not to decide constitutionality,” he said.
In order for students to have issues heard at E&CR meetings, they must submit an attention request form to the committee. These forms explain the scope and nature of the issue on which the student seeks a decision from the body.
In the future, this new decision by the E&CR will bind the body to address only the issues raised by the specific attention request form, unless the rules are suspended, allowing members to air concerns not submitted through the submittal of an attention request form.
Committee member Nathan Pawlicki raised concerns that the new rule would limit the effectiveness of the E&CR and amended the rule to allow for pressing constitutional violations to be addressed immediately.
Spurred on by a tangentially-related attention request form submitted by Napoleon Linardatos, editor of the Portland Spectator asking whether a ballot question that is worded clearly and objectively but is unconstitutional or illegal can appear on the ballot.
The E&CR ruled that an invalid question could appear on the ballot, and its constitutional or legal violations could be addressed by the E&CR at a later date.
