Schultz questions USSA quotas
ASUO Sen. Nick Schultz says his mind is not made up on the executive’s surplus request that will be heard today at 5 p.m. in the EMU Board room. But Schultz indicated this afternoon that he will come with questions about racial and gender quotas at the United States Student Association’s 62nd National Student Congress .
From the history section of the USSA’s Web site:
The association took a bold step toward multicultural leadership in 1989 when the Congress mandated that people of color fill half the seats on USSA’s Board of Directors. The diversity of the NPCSC delegation guaranteed that no racial group would gain a majority of seats, and ensured communication and organizing across racial lines at the highest levels of the organization. In succeeding years similar amendments ensured the representation of women and lesbians, gays and bisexuals on the board, and USSA entered its second half-century with a model of multiculturalism that was based on coalition and commonality of interest.
According tot he exec’s surplus request, ten students can go to Congress and have a chance to be elected to leadership positions and influence national legislative priorities, and not sending all ten means “not fully realizing the benefits of our USSA membership.”
Schultz said VP Getachew Kassa’s response to questions about quotas was that the exec has found a way to include every student who applied — so long as the exec gets the $2,000 surplus request and can send them all. Schultz said he’s open to listening to the executive’s arguments and will decide at the meeting. He pointed out that he and Demic Tiptino are strange bedfellows in their skepticism on this one. Schultz also said the real wild card was Summer Senate Chair Nick Gower. (When isn’t he?)
It’s interesting that Schultz of all progressive senators would be the thorn in President Kallaway’s side on this. During the primary campaign allies of Senator-designate Carina Miller, who were heavily involved in USSA and the Oregon Student Association, accused Schultz of a lack of credibility on lobbying issues. Also worth noting is that Rachel Cushman, who lead the charge against Schultz, is now one of Kallaway’s legislative affairs directors.
The executive is well prepared for tonight’s meeting: they are coming armed with data from the past four summers showing that Summer Senate rarely spends $2,000 of its $5,000 on all requests it receives.
It could be a far more contentious Senate meeting than usually occurs in summer, but in the end it seems likely the executive would get the full amount.
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Aren’t Emma and Getachew going to Lariviere’s dinner party tonight? Who will present for the executive?