Burnt Orange Report

October 26, 2004

Burnt Orange Report from the Floor

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

:: Final Report ::

Yes, I know that it has been a couple of weeks since I've submitted one of these reports, after Pride Week I took a bit of a break (as we all did) and haven’t been at the SG meetings. But I am back this week.

Apparently while I've been gone, much of the discussion has been about the Proposed Diversity Symposium for the SG Assembly which was tabled and then rewritten as new legislation for this week creating a committee instead. (SG and Committees, we love them!)

President Chaney gave his report discussing progress on the Student on the UT Board of Regents. Two more system school (Dallas and either Permian Basin or PanAmerica) passed them with 100% of the vote and the LBJ School Student Council (GPAC) here at UT also passed it. In discussions with the ~~Governor~~ not the Governor, possibly chairman of some type, their stance was that 'it's the legislature’s decision'. Goodness, leaving policy to the Texas legislature, could be scary! Just kidding, there is more momentum for it this cycle than in previous ones but whether it is a priority, we shall see. I know that Andrew has some thoughts on SG's "obsession" with the issue; I'll let him chime in on that one.

Bill for SG to sponsor the Muslim Student Association Fast-A-Thon passes.

Bill to increase UT E-mail storage space has been revived and passed. Thank goodness as I'm always in need of more UT space, even though I have g-mail, because I divide my accounts and which type of mail goes where.

In the middle of debate over the Vending Machine Bevo Bucks Bill President Chaney's laptop suddenly burst out in a rousing chorus of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack. As to why? No idea......

Charges were exchanged over the possibility that costs would increase anyways by implementing the system which would hurt returns to student organizations. Another charge was that those in communication with administrative officials (Dr. Harkins) had left him a bit flustered/in the dark claiming that he had first read about the effort to expand the service in the Daily Texan last week.

Personally, I didn't think this was all that much of a controversial issue, and I believe that it should be passed because the question really comes down to whether or not SG reps want to expand this service. Without the show of student support, it likely won't happen. SG resolutions tend to push issues in general, the specifics usually work themselves out (but of course, there are always Reps that love to bury themselves in endless debate over the wording but alas, I don't enjoy such privileges...)

The bill calls for a test run, it likely would be lower in costs of implementation since many of the network lines already exist on campus (the high cost the last time around). Grant Stannis, one of the authors of the legislation, swept in in the middle of the debate as he just made it to the SG meeting, and has been trying to calm the fears. Then an Instant Messenger conversation was read in support of the resolution that had happened just minutes before.

It's true; most students would be in support of expanded Bevo Bucks service on campus. It's highly irritating to be at other building on campus that isn't a dorm and not be able to use the UT IDs and Bevo Bucks. Most students don't understand it's because of a divide in contracts. But they don't really care; they would just like to see some action.

Oh heavens, the debate over this bill is going far beyond where it should be and reached a personal level when one of the Representatives questioned the student who sits on the committee that deals with this issue and commented "unless you're that stupid." I'm surprised that the SG Attorney General did not pipe up to declare anyone out of line.

Then there were a series of motions to move in and out of a Commiitte of the Whole in order to conduct a "straw poll" which found that when it came down to it, people wanted to pass the bill.

And in the final vote, after a friendly amendment to address concerns with scholarship money, the bill passed 29-0. Yea.

OK, so the music earlier was explained. Three costumed Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles appeared in the SG meeting, interrupting things and taking the mike with the following demands.

The turtle pond is too small, they want their pizza mobile back ("you don't see Michaelangelo here do you?"), they wanted some of hair gel Chaney used, urging Chaney to never wear khakis again. And then they left. I am quite confused.

And that is all I have for tonight, as my battery is dead.

Posted by Karl-Thomas Musselman at October 26, 2004 07:28 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Hey - I have been checking in with the BOR for awhile but this is my first post. I am a representative in Student Government and since there is this new BORFTF I thought I would add in my two cents. Tonights meeting was interesting, a lot of repreating the same thing over and over again and then of course there was the Ninja Turtles who played a prank on Chaney. I wanted to express my agreement with Chris Kennedy in his previous post about the importance of partisanship in SG members. This is my third year involved with Student Government so if anyone has questions let me know. Otherwise, keep fighting the good fight.

Posted by: mfw at October 26, 2004 11:58 PM

Thanks for adding your voice! Sometimes there is a lot of info in the meetings and I don't get every detail right so it's good to have more people to chime in with comments! The more voices, the more discussion the better.

Posted by: Karl-T at October 27, 2004 12:19 AM

Man, it is awesome that $80,000 is being spent on such a powerful and relevant group of people. I am so glad that some of my money was taken from me to give to Brent Chaney and all the other SG kids. They are so cool!

/sarcasm

Fuck them.

Posted by: Andrew D at October 27, 2004 03:14 AM

Andrew, I'm kind of curious as to why you think you would do well in politics.

Posted by: chrisken at October 27, 2004 10:27 AM

and all this is pertinent to the rest of Texans who come here for political news how????

Posted by: scott at October 27, 2004 12:48 PM

You know what Scott, we happen to be based in Austin, Texas. A large quantity of our readership happens to be based in Austin, Texas. And many of those are students at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. While we offer our perspective on National and State happenings, what makes us different is our roots and how that influences our perspective. Otherwise we'd be "just another blog" repeating the latest from Daily Kos.

So bite me.

Posted by: Karl-T at October 27, 2004 01:30 PM

Sorry Scott for the biting remark, I just have plenty of stress right now and people questioning what we write, not the content but the actual posts, was something that set me off a bit.

Posted by: Karl-T at October 27, 2004 02:12 PM

Chrisken (who I assume is Chris Kennedy), Andrew D thinks he will do well as a political consultant. I'm inclined to agree. Though Dobbs can be very outspoken (and vulgar) at times he has his feet planted firmly in the real world. Though his outbursts and agression may not play well in the feel-good world of SG politics, he gets the job done when it comes to real races.

Did You know That?.... I miss Reprezent

Posted by: Zach N at October 27, 2004 03:32 PM

So Andrew, are you still planning a run for SG in the spring?

Posted by: Karl-T at October 27, 2004 06:39 PM

I certainly hope Andrew Dobbs runs for SG president. He'd do better than the half brained pussies we have running the show now-a-days. Unfortunatley, intelligent people like Andrew tend not to waste their time on Student Government.

Posted by: Billy D at October 27, 2004 07:24 PM

Ad hominem attacks aside, if you have any legitimate criticisms I'd like to hear them. Have you attended any SG meetings? The Daily Texan coverage is superficial, uncritical, and abbreviated at best.

I think there are quite a few reasons why Andrew couldn't win a presidential race, especially at this stage of the game, but it would be interesting to see three or more legitimate tickets. Who would the VP be?

Posted by: chrisken at October 27, 2004 09:07 PM

Chris, I didn't make an ad hominen attack, did I? (I'm sorry if I implied one). Anyway, I don't think Dobbs is planning on running... though I could be wrong. I think the guy has a great mind for national politics and will go very far-- as for SG stuff, i don't think hes very interested.

Posted by: Zach N at October 27, 2004 10:38 PM

Nah I was referring to Billy D's post.

Posted by: chrisken at October 27, 2004 10:47 PM

So here I thought I was joining in with intelligent conversation with people who could agree and agree to disagree maturely instead of name-calling and baseless accusations...let's talk issues not just empty complaining

Posted by: mfw at October 28, 2004 12:59 PM

Just to clarify - I was no doubt out of line in the order of which I spoke (meaning I didn’t have the floor) but I do to emphatically state that I never said "unless you are that stupid" I said "unless you are that student" in response to him saying the money doesn’t matter. I was saying that money doesn’t matter unless you are the student that isn’t going to get that money because we want to swipe our bevobucks card to get a coke.

Posted by: Laura Gladney-Lemon at October 29, 2004 12:25 PM

Posted by: Laura Gladney-Lemon at October 29, 2004 12:26 PM

I'm sorry about the mistake. It did sound like a different word at the time. I took your name out of the article because if it was wrong someone couldn't come along and use it in a campaign or something. I will attempt to go back and correct the mistake in the entry. Thanks for reading it and leaving the correction. I always encourage others to check and correct the facts in the BORFTF pieces though I'm usually confident it is correct.

Posted by: Karl at October 29, 2004 08:07 PM

News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas

October 26, 2004

Burnt Orange Report from the Floor

By Karl-Thomas Musselman