by Rachel Frazer
The Senate’s agenda this week includes Internal Bill ALU-001, also known as the “Lead by Example” Act of 2016, authored by President Pro Tempore of the Senate Derek Wietelman. While the legislation in theory is largely considered a positive step for the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature, certain delegates, particularly delegation chairs, express concerns regarding recruitment and retention of new delegates.
Only voting delegates would be required to submit legislation; alternates would be exempt from the rule although everyone is encouraged to participate.
“As a small delegation, it would put a burden on my delegation. I would potentially lose half if this were to happen. I can guarantee three of my members would write legislation and the rest would no longer attend session,” said Jasmine Brown-Justas, delegation chair from OPSU.
Brown-Justas also argued the legislation would narrow the diversity of students from within the OIL pool, or deter new delegates from jumping into the process.
“A lot of them are afraid to speak on the mic, although a lot of people argue that’s what we want, is speakers. But if we do this, we’re just making OIL the same group of people. I’m a music education major— I’m not that type of person,” she said.
Meanwhile, larger delegations tend to favor the legislation, especially because they already internally enforce similar requirements.
“At OSU, I was required to write three bills this semester, and I was required to write two bills for the club. Being an author is one of the most important parts of the legislative process. If we want to teach the process, being in front of a committee is not too much to ask,” said Carly Abbott, OSU director of recruitment.
This legislation is not necessarily a new idea; a similar bill has been proposed at least twice since 2014, and did not pass both instances. Wietelman does acknowledge the controversy and concern surrounding the “Lead by Example” Act, and emphasizes his desire to work with delegation chairs no matter the outcome of the vote.
“The bill is intended to help keep the number of bills in the packet at a sustainable level because we’ve noticed we have slightly fewer than we normally do. The main concern, I understand, is that it could hurt recruitment. Maybe people want to join, but they feel they have nothing to say or no time to write it. Maybe the delegation chairs don’t know how to teach the bill writing process. My plan is to sit down and meet with delegation chairs. If that many are not concerned, I’m not going to push it.”
The “Lead by Example” Act of 2016 will appear in the Senate later this week.