Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society’s petitions to recall 21 members of Student Congress was approved by UOSA General Counsel Thursday.
The group filed 21 petitions, one for each member of Congress they wanted to recall. The members being recalled should be chosen by a vote of the students rather than automatically taking a position in Congress because they ran uncontested in last spring’s UOSA election, said Matt Bruenig, group spokesman.
“Students will have the opportunity to choose in the recall election whether their current representative should retain office or whether they should be removed from office,” said Michael Davis, UOSA General Counsel member.
The date for the recall election has not been determined, Davis said.
“In a recall election there is not an opponent, there is only the question of whether someone should keep their position,” Davis said.
Davis said if a member of Congress is recalled, Student Congress may either appoint a replacement or hold a special election.
Bruenig said a special election should take place to fill the seat of any member removed from office.
“SDS believes that appointing people to fill vacant seats after the recall is not a solution,” Bruenig said. “It will only perpetuate the non-representative nature of the organization that we are seeking to reform.”
He said if there are any vacancies produced by the recall election and a special election is called, the group will select candidates to run for open seats.
“The petitions were signed before the meeting Tuesday and no member of Congress was singled out for a personal attack,” Bruenig said.
Davis states in the General Counsel’s report on the recall petitions that the signature was dropped because the second signature was a student who is not in Gress’ district.
Student Congress said they respect the group’s right to petition for a recall election, but said it is unfortunate they do not respect the work being done by Congress, said Spencer Pittman, UOSA Student Congress spokesman.
“It is unfortunate that they are seeking to recall good members of Congress,” Pittman said. “[These members] are working to change the way things are on and around campus.”
Pittman said members of Congress hope the recall election will draw attention to the work being done by current representatives and also said members of Congress will continue to work on current projects and legislation as if there was not an upcoming recall election.
“We are not going to work any less on projects and ideas that come to the Congress,” he said. “We will continue to work to make great change happen on campus for the good of the entire student body.”
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What a clever idea. Just recall them and let the students decide.
Here is a link to the press release from SDS for people who want more context: http://takebackuosa.org/recallrelease.ht...
This is a positive thing. The recall should not be looked upon as an attempt to remove members from their positions, especially those who are very hardworking and attempt to represent the OU students in the best way possible. It seems apparent to me that this recall is more of a way to draw attention to the UOSA, not an attempt to disrupt it.
Letter to the Editor
This letter is in response to the article published in the September 25th edition of the OU Daily, entitled, “UOSA Recalls Members of Student Congress.”
I want to say I totally understand that matters pertaining to the UOSA and its constitution are sometimes complicated, and probably difficult to always report accurately. And I think the few errors in the article are understandable. But for the sake of clarity, I feel some details need to be cleaned up and clarified.
First, the headline is very misleading. It makes it sound like the UOSA has recalled members of student congress, which is untrue. The first step of the overall recall process has indeed been completed with the submission of valid petitions, but no recall has yet taken place and all congress members are still serving in their respective elected positions.
Second, I think the section in the news story about the invalidation of a particular signature was confusing. To clarify, a single signature on a single petition was deemed invalid because the signatory was not a member of the district the petition pertained to. The petition was nonetheless certified because the signature was beyond the threshold requirement and was not needed anyway.
Michael J. Davis
General Counsel
University of Oklahoma Student Association
The SDS? Are you kidding me? I thought we kicked those commie queers off campus in the 60s! Round'em up and send'em back to Texastan!
mikedavis,
you are talking to the oklahoma daily correction, the oudaily mistake, etc..
don't take headlines so seriously. first it is either spelled incorrectly or something as simple as "new soundtrack offers new sounds."
if you are looking for clarity bro, its not here...
also.. supersooner, i don't believe it's necessarily appropriate to call someone "commie queers." they are being active in their organization, which is clearly more than most of us will be. like uosa and their empty seats, and you and i who sit behind computers and complain. besides, didn't the daily get in trouble with the bobo's chicken story? shouldn't they be wary of publishing a comment calling someone a queer? These editors really don't edit things do they?
Sigh... SDS being annoying as usual. First they say UOSA is irrelevant, then they try to remove people from office that are liberal/communists like themselves. If the UOSA is so irrelevant, then why even bother?
The UOSA is not inherently irrelevant. It happens to be irrelevant in its current form. We think it can be made relevant again with the right structure, more competition, and more involvement.
I’m sorry "OUguy," did I say queer? I meant homosexurals! OU used to be one of the last bastions of core American values: God, Family, Country, and Football. If OU is going to let these SDSer’s run amuck, then I’m moving to Arkansas!
Woooooooooo, Pig ! Sooie!
Woooooooooo, Pig ! Sooie!
Woooooooooo, Pig ! Sooie!
Goooooo . . . . Razorbacks!!
The idea that the UOSA is irrelevant is not contrary to SDS's position. They hope that through increased participation and competition in the election process that it might become a relevant and representative voice of the student body.
Before the Congress can even hope to be an accurate representation of students, two things must happen: There must be enough people interested in running to hold a competition and there must also be enough voters in the actual elections.
The Daily ought to make every effort to extensively cover elections and voting issues from an early point on (regardless of whether they are special elections or regularly scheduled ones), not only encouraging people to vote in the election but also publicizing deadlines for candidacy and encouraging students to actually run. This is of course not solely the responsibility of The Daily. Every organization that is involved with student affairs, including the UOSA its self, must contribute to making issues and elections salient by hosting interest events and/or debates, spreading fliers around bulletin boards, chalking dates and issues, and taking any possible effort to make the student body more aware of the processes.
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