Senators approved job descriptions for the ASUW executive positions, including chief of staff, director of government affairs, director of finance, director of promotions and marketing, director of diversity and leadership, and director of student programming and sustainability.

The final item of business at the meeting was to ask senators to submit ideas for end-of-year spending, which is the money left over from what was allocated last year.

ASUW Senior Accounting Associate Kristy Isaak said the money is used to buy things that can’t be covered in the budget, such as office items.

The final spending requests may be submitted by ASUW funded programs like the student attorney program and freshman senate. The money can be used toward promotional items meant to increase the visibility of ASUW, such as T-shirts and mugs.

The end-of-year spending requests are due in June 2012.

Looking back over the events of the year, newly elected ASUW President Joel Defebaugh said he was most proud of the revisions to the finance policy and the Recognized Student Organizations Funding Board revisions.

“With Saferide transitioning, the RSO funding board is one of the biggest programs that we oversee,” Defebaugh said.

“We saw a good deal of legislation that affected students and several controversial issues really made the students know what was going on with ASUW, whether the smoking ban or wildcatter. It correlates directly to high student outcome for ASUW elections,” Defebaugh said.

Defebaugh said he plans to work over the summer on hiring the executive staff and planning for the 100th year anniversary celebration for ASUW.

He also said UW will host a number of students from Shanghai University and he plans to make them feel welcome.

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Rachel Wimbish, an international studies and economics senior, said her single year as a senator had been one she would remember.

At the final ASUW meeting for the semester, Wimbish said she wished she had known how enjoyable an experience it would be so she could have run for senate earlier.

“It pushed me to meet a lot of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise, really get involved on campus and move outside my comfort zone,” Wimbish said.

Wimbish said she was encouraged to join ASUW by fellow senator Jordan Kaul.

“I figured I’d just run and see what happened,” Wimbish said. “Then I won and I really liked it.”

Wimbish said her mother had always been supportive and encouraged her to be as active and vocal as she wanted which helped her decision to run for senate.

Although she was only a senator for a brief time, Wimbish said she still felt it was important that senators accurately represent their constituents.

“We need to make sure what we’re doing as a student government is representative of what is good for students and what students want,” Wimbish said.

Wimbish’s involvement in politics at UW also included a brief membership with the College Democrats.

After graduating, Wimbish said she hopes to attend graduate school in Frankfurt, Germany to study environmental economics.

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Joel Defebaugh, a political science junior, will be the ASUW president after serving as a College of Arts and Sciences senator for the past two years.

Defebaugh said he had been involved in leadership positions throughout school as an Eagle Scout and high school student body president and wanted to continue that role at UW.

“I think I ran first in third grade for student council,” Defebaugh said.

“When I came on [UW] campus, I kind of got dropped into a pool of 10,000 students,” Defebaugh said. “I learned a lot about not being involved and it wasn’t fun for me.”

Defebaugh said being involved on campus made his time more rewarding.

“When people ask my favorite thing about UW, I say the people,” Defebaugh said. “I love walking across Prexy’s and saying good morning to people.”

Defebaugh said being a senator was about staying connected and reaching out to students.

“I love talking to students because I get a good feeling of where they’re at on campus and what helps them adjust to campus life and what we can do better,” Defebaugh said.

Defebaugh said being a member of ASUW allowed him to help students with whatever problems bothered them.

“It was a blast, because I got to see students enter the university, I’ve lived with them this whole year in the residence halls and then when I talk to them about things that bother them, as an ASUW senator I can propose legislation and move those student issues,” Defebaugh said.

Defebaugh’s other involvement on campus includes being president of the sophomore honorary SPURs, president of the junior honorary Iron Skull, member of the Outdoor Leadership Development Series and a Residence Hall Adviser.

After graduating, Defebaugh said he wanted to go to law school.

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The new program, called the Campus Leadership Network, will match student leaders on campus with freshmen interested in similar extracurricular activities. Freshmen will shadow an established student and have meetings with their mentor periodically.

According to the program’s proposal, the student leader will sign up in the SLCE office and list the activities in which they are involved. Freshmen can look over the list and assign themselves to a leader based on what types of activities in which they wish to participate.

The rationale behind the resolution and the program is that freshmen are intimidated by the sheer number of activities on campus and may not get involved their first year.

ASUW debated the merit of such a program. Senators for the program argued that this a great way to get freshmen involved earlier and perhaps decrease the percentage that drop out after the first year.

Critics of the bill said the most motivated students will take the initiative to get involved themselves. Other senators felt new students should concentrate on going to class and getting used to the college environment before signing up for activities.

Freshman senate representative Trevor Scherlin endorsed the program.

“As a freshman myself, having another way to get involved on campus would have been amazing,” Scherlin said.

College of Arts and Sciences Sen. Joel Defebaugh also supported the resolution.

“This sends a really strong message that ASUW supports leadership on campus,” he said.

College of Arts and Sciences Sen. Joseph Chenchar was not as supportive.

“ASUW is sitting around tonight making all kinds of committees for all kinds of things,” Chenchar said.  “I just don’t see the value in something helping freshmen do things. Obviously, we were all freshmen and we are all here tonight because we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and got here on our own.”

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ASUW Sen. Phil Abernathy, a senior in business finance, was recognized for his contributions to ASUW by renaming one section of the ASUW rules and regulations to the “Abernathy Clause.”

Abernathy said he decided to become an ASUW senator after serving on the ASUW Freshman Senate.

“The natural progression from that was to get into ASUW and I’ve always enjoyed it enough that I’ve stayed,” Abernathy said.

Abernathy said his greatest passion had always been the financial side of ASUW.

“My biggest goal at first, and I still have always had it, was to make sure we could fund a lot of events with RSO Funding board,” Abernathy said. “I’ve always really enjoyed that, and going to all the different events they do.”

Abernathy said he also wanted to make sure his constituents felt like the money was being well spent.

Abernathy said being involved in politics was something he had decided to take an interest in.

“I’ve always liked it, the voting on the issues and seeing the inner workings has really fascinated me,” Abernathy said. “Some friends have encouraged me to keeping doing [ASUW], but mostly it’s a self-interest thing.”

Abernathy said being involved in ASUW has rewarded him with valuable opportunities, strong friendships and skills and experience.

“It’s really helped me learn about seeing other sides of an issue, debating issues, understanding things a little more full-circle,” Abernathy said. “It really helps you develop personal connections and other skills that carry on throughout my career.”

In addition to his long involvement with ASUW, Abernathy said he had also been involved with other groups on campus, including the Campus Activity Center, Student Activity Center and Friday Night Fever.

After graduating, Abernathy said he wanted to go into banking or financial advising.

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The Ex-Officio from NTSC argued that the budget cuts during the budget defense process earlier in the semester were a result of a misunderstanding and would leave them without adequate money to fund next year’s programs, including a paid internship position.

Sen. Kalayla Hough urged a no vote and said she wanted to remind everyone that the cuts to the NTSC bill were made by the RSO Funding Board and were again passed by the Budget and Planning committee when NTSC appealed the budget cuts.

Other senators echoed this statement, including Sen. Phil Abernathy, who sits on the RSO Funding Board.

“We made cuts, they were intelligent cuts and we should uphold them,” Sen. Abernathy said.

Following the failure of the bill, Sen. Rachel Wimbish moved to separate each of the three sections into individual bills but these were also voted down.

“If you don’t give us this money then you will have cut our budget next year by 12 per cent,” the NTSC Ex-Officio said.

Sen. Jordan Kaul noted that the majority of cuts were from NTSC’s travel budget. The allocation of travel funding was reduced from covering two students to one, which was a suggestion by NTSC.

Sen. Josh Messer said he did not agree with where the money for the proposed amendments would be coming from.

“The RSO Funding Board receives more money because they always run out of money,” Sen. Messer said.

Sen. Wimbish moved an amendment to give $500 from ASUW’s water cooler budget to NTSC’s program expenses, but it was defeated 19-9.

Sen. Joseph Chenchar lightheartedly defended the importance of the water cooler.

“When it comes to budget season, it’s all about making sacrifices,” Sen. Chenchar said. “There’s one thing I’m not willing to sacrifice and that is the business office water cool.”

“Even though I don’t like those new cups, I still struggle every day to get one out of there and fill it with cold, refreshing water,” Sen. Chenchar said.

Sen. Jordan Parry responded by noting that UW has installed water bottle fillers on all of the drinking fountains in the union.

“Literally eight steps outside of the ASUW office you can go and hold your water bottle under it,” Sen. Parry said. “The water that comes out is pretty dang cold and it tastes pretty good.”

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The program was eliminated in fall of 2010 because of uncoordinated leadership and participation. The ASUW senators who led the program in 2009 were unable to give the time commitment needed last year and the program’s leadership suffered.

In place of the program, some of the responsibilities were assigned to the Academics and Technology Committee, which was renamed to include the new assignment.

ASUW Chief of Staff Bryan Dugas drafted the bill to reinstate the program and fix some of the problems with the program in 2010.

“This is the first time since I’ve been in senate that I’ve seen a program recreated. It’s almost more difficult to recreate a program because you have the previous implications of why that previous one failed,” Dugas said.

Dugas said the solution to the failings of the previous program is addressed in the bill.

Five groups on campus that have positions related to sustainability will make up the leadership of the program: ASUW, School of Environment and Natural Resources, Residence Life and Dining Services, Residence Hall Association and Student Leadership and Community Engagement.

“Sustainability efforts on campus are spotty and not really unified,” Dugas said. “We can serve as a hub for different sustainability groups. They could piggyback off each others events or work together to have a big event.”

Dugas said he hopes the program will be able to take on larger projects that the ASUW committee may not be able to tackle, such as incorporating carpooling or biking into daily life. There may be awareness for more recycling or eliminating pollutants in the air.

“The program has the ability to operate entirely without ASUW involvement, which promotes greater involvement,” Dugas said. “A committee is almost all ASUW members, so we are really only getting that one perspective.”

In other news:

ASUW voted 24–4 in favor of funding the ASUW 100th anniversary celebration, which will include $11,415 worth of activities. The bill provides $6,000 for a dinner for 300 attendees, $2,500 for a reception, $1,000 each to fund speakers and promotional items, $500 for decorations and $415 for awards to be given to notable alumni.

ASUW approved three funding amounts for Recognized Student Organizations.

The International Students Association received $2,100 for the International Coffee Hour program.

The Potter Law Club received $5,800 for Law Week, an event in which a series of lawyers and judges come to campus to speak on a variety of law issues.

The Financial Management Association received $780 to host the Consumer Issues Conference at the UW campus.

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Candidate Joel Defebaugh (Photo: Taylor Watson)

Debate moderator, Sen. Emily Bennett, asked the University of Wyoming Associated Students of the University of Wyoming presidential ticket candidates which topic was the most important issue that senate did not currently address.

ASUW vice president nominee Sen. Brett Kahler said he would like to survey the students and find out which issue was most pressing to them.

On the opposing ticket, vice president nominee Mariah McKay said she and ASUW presidential nominee Alex Brink were told by students that sexual assault on campus was the most pressing issue.

“It happens at the University of Wyoming, and it is a problem,” Brink said.

Candidate Alex Brink

Later Brink said his ticket would like to implement a position in the executive cabinet to specifically address campus safety and sexual assault.

When asked about how the senate should represent students when dealing with issues involving administration and donors both tickets said they would fully represent the student body regardless of opposing viewpoints as that is what they would be elected to do.

The ASUW presidential ticket elections will be held Wednesday though Friday via WyoWeb.

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Seneca Riggins is the Editor-in-Chief for the 2011/2012 Branding Iron.

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Associated Students of the University Of Wyoming College Of Agriculture Sen. Katie Drumhiller is the chair of the Recognized Student Organizations board. Drumhiller is responsible for designating funds to student groups on campus. (Photo: Katie Glennemeier)

Drumhiller is the chair of the RSO Funding Board and, with the rest of the board members, is responsible for designating funds to student groups on campus.

Drumhiller said she takes the role very seriously and is dedicated to trying to make the funding board a painless process for RSOs.

“I want to be the best RSO Funding Board chair I can possibly be,” Drumhiller said. “I want to make it feel like it’s a comfortable place, because it’s kind of scary for a lot of people.”

Drumhiller said being on the funding board has helped improve her people skills and communicate potentially bad news in the best way to people.

“With money, it’s kind of hard to nicely tell people the decisions of maybe not even yourself, but a whole board,” Drumhiller said.

Drumhiller said she became involved with ASUW because of her brother.

“My brother went to UW five years ago and he was a senator,” Drumhiller said. “So I got into Freshman Senate. It taught me a lot about how ASUW might work.”

Drumhiller said she loved to take on new challenges.

“I’ve always been motivated to just live, in a sense,” Drumhiller said. “I don’t want to just be mediocre. I want to have the happiest life I can possibly have.”

Drumhiller said this love of challenges also inspired a desire for adventure and thrills, like skydiving.

Drumhiller, a microbiology senior, said after graduating from UW she wanted to pursue a masters degree in public health.

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The Associated Students of the University of Wyoming Funding Board also approved $140 be allocated to the American Water Works Association/Water Environment Federation for club member registration to the AWWA/WEF Student Research Conference. The representative, an undergraduate at UW, said the conference is a place where both post-graduate and undergraduate students can give presentations to students from other colleges, their own members and professionals. Each student who wishes to give a presentation at the conference must submit an abstract and have it approved. Of the six organization members attending the conference, four will give presentations.

ASUW Sen. Luis Garcia said he was glad to see a younger student going to a conference.

The Funding Board allocated $99 to the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences for a trip to the AAFCS Annual Conference and Expo. The UW AAFCS representative said the conference would be a great place for students to learn about leadership. The organization has sent members in the past, a few of which will attend the 2012 conference.

ASUW Sen. Arla Mistica asked if ASUW had the funds to fulfill both requests. Kristy Isaak, ASUW senior accounting associate, said there would be $65 left in the coffers after the funding board approved the two requests.

The ASUW Funding Board’s final meeting for the semester will be next Monday.

Hannah Wheeler

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