By Farris Willingham, Editor-in-Chief
Student senators overturned a veto March 27 on a resolution that would call for student action in the creation of a new university eatery.
Officials plan to partner with OCUDining to reformat the BLUEtique, the university’s former resale shop, and turn it into a restaurant.
OCUDining is the university’s branch of Sodexo, a national catering service.
Sen. Anthony England (senior-at-large) plans to propose a ballot question that will be presented to the student body within the next few weeks.
The question will contain the bill’s three resolved actions, which will make the ballot process easy for students, England said.
The resolution requests:
– no increase in the cost of meal plans to fund any subsequent investments in the restaurant,
– the reestablishment of a student board of directors for students to convene and address student concerns,
– the university to review the final contract before proposals are completed, and
– a referendum be put to a ballot for the student body to vote on the aforementioned actions.
Emma Velez, Student Government Association president, vetoed the resolution on March 15 due to disagreements she had with two of the bill’s resolved actions and the tone set by the background information about Sodexo.
“While I understand that the goal of the resolution was to protect students and our interests, we should strive as an SGA for civil discourse with the administration in order to enact the changes we want to make,” wrote Velez in response to Senate’s reversal of the veto.
The resolution outlines the positive and negative history of OCUDining—not solely OCUDining’s achievements, England said.
“My goal wasn’t necessarily to sugarcoat everything so that no one’s feelings were hurt,” he said. “I wasn’t going to just hide the negative things just so that everyone looked awesome because part of the concern is that things aren’t awesome.”
Velez also opposed resolved action No. 2, which suggests that OCUDining commit to the recreation of the Student Board of Directors.
The board has not ceased to exist, she said.
“Several days before the resolution was presented to the Senate, Kelli Keegan, director of food services, sent a campus wide email calling for student’s participation,” Velez wrote. “This practice is one that is utilized at every college campus where Sodexo is contracted.”
England consented that there may be a Student Board of Directors, but no knows who they are.
The list of contacts for the Student Board of Directors on OCUDining’s webpage was last updated in 2008.
Click here for the Student Board of Directors’ webpage.
“I think just alone looking at a list from three years ago on their website is proof enough that it’s not functioning well,” England. “That’s a really important part of making OCUDining work well and hear students.”
Another issue President Velez took with the resolution was in its call for a ballot question.
“Resolved action No. 4 calls for a referendum on the issue to the student body but fails to offer a clearly discernible question for such a measure,” she wrote.
The SGA Constitution does not effectively outline the process for a referendum, England said.
“It just says that a referendum has to be passed with a majority vote on the Senate floor,” he said.
The issue is with the document’s wording, wherein initiative and referendum are used interchangeably, England said.
A referendum doesn’t have the same stipulation as an initiative, which is a student-driven action.
“This is a pretty confusing part of our Constitution,” he said. “Hopefully whatever procedure we use in this process will serve as a precedent for future referendums.”
Regardless of Velez’s dissent, she congratulated the senators for creating a “well thought out” resolution.
“But, I think it will be better if we tackle this together,” she wrote. “Let’s work as a team to head up a student board that will be influential in the decision making processes regarding the flip.”
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