Freshman Ellen Searle was added to the Oakland University Student Congress during the Feb. 3 meeting, officially filling the legislature.

“This is something I’ve been waiting for for a while,” Searle said.  “I’m excited but at the same time, it’s weird realizing that I’m actually here.”

Searle spoke about her intent to expand Chartwells’ dining hall hours in Vandenberg Hall to accommodate more students and to further enforce of the OU Clean Air policy.

“The first thing we have to do is to figure out how much people actually know about the policy,” she said.  “From there we can decide what action must be taken on how to further educate people.”

Some members of an Oakland University men’s music fraternity led by Joshua Nuss expressed their gratitude by performing a surprise musical number.

Committee addition

Congress approved the inclusion of additional members to a number of committees.  

Student Activities Funding Board added Nusrat Zaman; the Tailgate Committee added Alexandria Jones, Cassandra Hock, Ted Tansley and Rob Coddington; and the Marketing Committee added Tadan Kateria and Olivia June.

New bill

OUSC engaged in a thorough 15-minute discussion addressing a new bill aimed at adding an elected parliamentarian to the council.

According to the official bill, the parliamentarian’s responsibility would be to “maintain the congress’ bylaws along with the Robert’s Rules of Order during congressional meetings and enforce them as required.”

Essentially, the role of the parliamentarian would be to act as the go-to person in the event of an issue related to meeting formalities.

“The parliamentarian is more of a specialist,” legislator Rachel Boye said.  “When I first heard about the bill, I was against it, but once I clarified some questions I had, it made me understand why this would be more necessary.”

The debate included both favorable and dissenting opinions. 

“I personally do not support this bill,” legislator Brittany Hall said.  “I think we should look into enhancing how the vice president is trained to adequately run congressional meetings.”

Since this was the first reading of the bill, there will be a second reading and discussion next week meeting, followed by an official vote.

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