“The session needs to be more of question and answer than a firing squad.”
– SA Senator John Benzinger

Student Association senators engaged in a heated debate over limiting senators’ questioning time and ultimately voted down the Just and Proportional Observation resolution Sunday.

The resolution, authored by Sens. Drew Baryenbruch and John Benzinger, called for limitations on the question-and-answer portion of Senate meetings. According to the resolution, some senators are “long winded,” which may discourage other senators from participating.

“The session needs to be more of question and answer than a firing squad,” Benzinger said.

Baryenbruch and Benzinger’s resolution would have limited a senator’s questions to one per turn, with a limit of 10 minutes for each turn. A senator, however, would have an unlimited number of turns to use.

Others spoke out against the legislation for attacking one specific senator, Sen. Joseph Ohler, because the acronym of the legislation, JPO, is the same as Ohler’s initials.

“We signed up for debate,” Sen. Rob Grover said. “Sometimes it is not fun to be here, but we are here to represent the students.”

Some senators argued that one question per turn would be an ineffective way of conducting the question-and-answer portion of the meetings. Speakers would be unable to answer follow-up questions because the asking senator would have to be put at the end of the list of questioning senators.

The debate of the measure lasted for nearly an hour.

The resolution was amended to limit the questions to two per turn, however the Senate still failed it 15-11. The measure needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

Other highlights from the meeting included:

• Amie Segal and Jacob Martin were approved to fill a Senate vacancy in the Peck School of the Arts and the freshman class, respectively.
• There will be an investigation of Cassandra Gauthier, Independent Election Committee commissioner, because of her possible political affiliation following her appointment.
• An item concerning the Office of Student Life Oversight Committee bylaws was removed from the agenda.

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