SENATE RECAP 8/30: ASUN internship ‘rebrand’ generates discourse

By Jaedyn Young

The executive branch presented a piece of legislation to the Aug. 30 senate meeting to change the ASUN Internship into the ASUN Partnership, which caused an at length discussion about the change; mostly because the shift had already been reflected in promotional materials, unbeknownst to the senate body.

The piece of legislation was submitted by Aween Ali, senator for the College of Engineering, on behalf of Hannah Dayna Alquiza, the vice president of the ASUN, and Isabella Hatt, the director of executive affairs.

The two, Alquiza and Hatt, said they brought this piece forward to get rid of the “belittling” title of being called an intern versus a partner. Having a title like this would allow the interns to “feel like they were meant to be there” according to Alquiza and Hatt.

However, the legislation caused much discourse, even after many public commenters came forward supporting the name change to partnership, including Boris Carpio Guerra, ASUN president, Arthur-James Okwuosa, director of IDEA and Alexia Walck, assistant director of IDEA.

Joel Martin, senator for the College of Liberal Arts pointed out that the executive branch already put the name “partnership” on the website, on the application, on their Instagram page and other platforms, without consulting the senate body first, essentially going over the system of “checks and balances.”

“It should’ve been brought to us; if anything, it should’ve been for the next session,” Martin said to the senate table. “When you cast your vote, just remember that.”

Martin added later in the meeting: “personally I think if we vote yes on this, we’re giving them the a-okay that they can go behind legislation’s back on this.”

Tori Beaulac, senator for the College of Science, echoed Martin’s point that the name change on the site and application before proposing legislation “sets a precedent that the executive board can make a change” without consulting the senate, and is subsequently “dangerous.”

Additionally, promotional materials and brochures had been made and paid for through ASUN’s marketing department, Inkblot, although they did not have a number on how much it cost. Hatt and Alquiza said the executive branch has jurisdiction over marketing and wanted to get the process started, hence the change, but many at the senate table disagreed.

Beaulac also said the name change does not change anything else internally.

“When I see a name change and nothing else changes, I see a cover up job,” Beaulac said.

Frobes echoed this sentiment, saying it would be “a great piece to see” in the future, but ultimately is unfinished due to the lack of change “behind the scenes.

“This is a step towards creating that change,” Hatt argued in return. “We could obviously add more to this piece of legislation, but from our eyes the term partner is a much more value-based approach to creating that feeling in the program.”

Jefrin Jojan, senator for the College of Engineering argued he couldn’t find any evidence on the “negative” connotation of the word internship, even saying it is more “valuable” to future employers, while “partnership” confuses things. He emphasized an effort in trying to pay the interns before they jump on a name change and is currently uncomfortable with the legislation, to which Martin agreed.

“I think this doesn’t really cut towards the issues,” Jojan said. “Let me tell you, from someone of a minority background, it means so much more to me for it to be an internship being paid instead of an unpaid partnership.”

Aween Ali, senator for the College of Engineering, on the side for the legislation, argues the mentor and an intern dynamic reinforces the idea of one person being in charge of the other. Ali told the table about her own experience as an intern and how since she was given equal opportunities to help senators, so the term partner could be a better description for the job.

“I feel like partner would be a much more appropriate term,” Ali said. “To break [the] intimidation, having that word partner can help. We want to be approachable, we don’t want to scare them away … They’re still people.”

Alquiza also reminds the table that this piece of legislation is aimed towards people of color. She uses the comparison of the change from “homelessness” to “unhoused” people being the same as the change from internship to partnership and the name change will bring the same amount of treatment difference.

However, Jojan said the “homelessness” to “unhoused” change has proven research backing it, but under his search he could not find any evidence to support the negativity behind the term internship.

Jojan then brought back up the topic of paying the interns.

“If [the interns] are doing all this great work why aren’t we paying them,” he said. “Isn’t ASUN just exploiting unpaid labor at this point?”

After reiterating this point, he proposed an amendment for the senators to promise to work hard to find available money to allow the interns to be paid within the next two years.

The majority of the senate body voted “no,” to which Jojan expressed his disappointment: “I really would question what’s the point of name change if we’re not going to do anything else.”

“Curious that all this stuff was printed before legislation,” Jojan added, saying this legislation should’ve been brought up during the summer before printing.

Eventually, all senators said their final words on the discussion of the legislation, and Speaker Fayza Salah called for a vote, which was a majority no.

“Uncomfortable conversations are good,” said Alquiza, before her and Hatt thanked the table.

Due to the prolonged discussion about the name change, other talking points and agenda items were postponed to the

SENATE RECAP 9/6: Expected ASUN judicial hearing for internship ‘rebrand,’ new resolution passed and two resignations

By Jaedyn Young

ASUN judicial hearing on Sept. 11

In Chief Justice Brayden Taeubel’s officer report, he announced a judicial hearing regarding the rebrand legislation brought to the table at the senate meeting on Aug. 30. Aween Ali, senator for the College of Engineering, submitted the legislation on behalf of Hannah Dayna Alquiza, the vice president of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Reno, and Isabella Hatt, the director of executive affairs.

Erin Shaffer, senator for the College of Liberal Arts, filed a charge with the judicial council via email on Sept. 4, to which Jefrin Jojan, senator of the College of Engineering, questioned later in the meeting. Shaffer reiterated that the internship rebrand piece was discussed at the Aug. 30 meeting and failed with a vote of three to 15, However, Shaffer reported an email reminder was sent out recently to the internship applicants to ask them to sign up for their interviews. The email included “partnership” instead of internship in the title.

“[The email] showed that the executive board or [president’s cabinet] wasn’t following the decision that senate had made, so I decided to file a charge,” Shaffer said.

The council decided to accept the case on Sept. 6.

The open hearing, Shaffer v. ASUN Internship, will take place Sept. 11 at 8 a.m. in the President’s Conference Room.

Senate Resolution 91 passed

The senate fast-tracked S.R. 91, A Binding Resolution to Create the Addition of Introduction of Guests at the Senate Table.

Shaffer brought the legislation to the table based on the Nevada State Legislature. Representatives at the state legislature are permitted to bring guests, who can be recognized for their accomplishments on the public record. The legislation proposed inviting up to two student guests to the table to be recognized and receive a certificate; the guests wouldn’t have speaking or voting rights at the table.

“The intent is also to recognize our students, since we are the ones representing our students. This is to create another opportunity to recognize them at the table and on public record,” Shaffer said.

Senators will email the speaker about the nominees, however there is no process of approval and it is up to the senator who is bringing them to the table. To which Aween Ali, senator of the College of Engineering added, “I like this idea … but I feel like there needs to be some sort of process for it.”

Ali pointed out that everyone may have a different idea about what type of accomplishment is worth recognizing.

Joel Martin, senator of the College of Liberal Arts proposed the idea of creating an amendment that leaves recognition of the student to the discretion of the speaker. The amendment would allow Fayza Salah, the speaker of the senate to set precedent for what kind of recognitions would typically be brought to the table. The new amendment was unanimously voted on and added to line 12 in the legislation.

Jojan proposed announcing the guests at the beginning of the meeting under the “Receipt of petitions and correspondence” section instead of “Miscellaneous Business,” which is discussed at the end of the meeting. Moving the agenda item means students don’t have to wait until the end of the meeting to be recognized. The vote for this amendment was unanimous.

After the amendment changes, the vote for the resolution was passed unanimously.

Resignations

At this meeting, James Tracy, senator of the College of Engineering and Mackenzie Taylor, a senator of the college of Liberal Arts resigned from the senate due to scheduling issues.

Jaedyn Young can be reached via email at jaedynyoung@ sagebrush.unr.edu or via Twitter @Jaedyn_Young3.