Senate introduces Common Organizational Terms Act

Senator Griffin Oliver ’27 has proposed a new Union policy that would standardize the definitions of several terms used by the Student Union that currently remain ambiguous in legislation and other Union documents. The act, titled the “Common Organizational Terms Act of 2024”, would affect all following Union legislation and could also retroactively be used in interpreting policy currently being used. A motion to begin using this document as a dictionary for Union and use definitions as it dictates will be put forward in the next Senate meeting.

Oliver introduced the act as a glossary of terms to be used as definitions in the writing of any legislation by student government. If implemented, it would act as a dictionary for use with every Union document except for the Union Constitution, defining terms when they could be interpreted in different ways. For example, Section 2 of the act gives explicit definitions of a “Union Body”, a “Primary Union Body”, a “Subsidiary Union Body”, and “Student Government.”

A Title IX Bystander Intervention Training session happened at the beginning of the meeting, during which the meeting remained off-record to maintain privacy. Afterwards, the Senate was unable to vote on any motions because they had not reached quorum. As a result, the approval of changes to the Sign Policy within the Rensselaer Union Guidelines and Procedures was tabled until the next Senate meeting. After Oliver presented the act, the floor was opened up for discussion. Several questions were asked regarding specific definitions and how they relate to each other, and amendments to definitions were suggested to be approved next week. Final discussion and voting on the act is set to take place on Monday, November 11.

This meeting was held on November 4, 2024. The Senate meets every Monday at 8 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.