ASA affinity delegation discussions cause concerns

During J-term, the Augustana Student Association’s governing documents task force discussed implementing an affinity delegation, which would reduce the number of affinity seats in the senate from five to two. 

ASA Secretary Slater Dixon, chair of the governing documents task force, first presented the idea to the full senate during ASA’s meeting on Feb. 4. ASA Technical Director Prince Adhikari said that as of Feb. 16, no formal amendments surrounding affinity seats or delegations have been registered.

Affinity seats are held by organizations that represent systemically non-dominate students. Currently, five affinity organizations hold a seat in the senate: African Student Union, Asian Student Organization, Black Student Union, Gender and Sexuality Alliance and La Unión Hispana. 

This J-term, Dixon and four senators were appointed to the governing documents task force by the ASA Executive Board. According to Dixon, the governing documents task force meets every January to examine potential changes to the documents that govern ASA, such as its constitution, by-laws and election code. 

Adhikari said other ASA senators, the ASA Executive Board, administrators, students and other stakeholders identified four critical topics for the task force to address: at-large elections, treasurer elections, funding and the senate structure. 

“In the past, [governing documents] has brought a ton of amendments,” Dixon said. “This year was more of like, ‘Let’s think about these general problems.’”

‘Shrink ASA’

According to Dixon, reducing the number of senate seats has been a recurring conversation in ASA for three years. 

Fourth-year Sen. Schaler Starks said in April 2023, the 2022-2023 ASA senate left the current ASA a resolution to look into, titled “Shrink ASA.” 

Former Sen. Vedant Thakkar and Sen. Jose Serna proposed an amendment on Nov. 20 aimed at reducing the overall size of the senate from 28 to 23 to increase competitiveness of elections and overall efficiency. 

Under the proposed amendment, one seat each would be removed from second-years, third-years and fourth-years, as well as two seats for at-large senators, who represent the entire student body population rather than a specific class or affinity organization. 

Adhikari said the senate’s fall session was ending with its final meeting on Dec. 4 and senators had not reached a stable consensus on the proposed amendment, so the topic was left to the governing documents task force to analyze over J-term. 

“For those people who are trying to create an amendment about that, it becomes necessary to figure out how to reduce everybody and, therefore, also reduce affinity seats,” Starks said. 

Starks said because affinity seats are not voted on by the general student population — rather they are elected by their affinity groups — there is a delicate balance between preserving representation and maintaining the democratic balance of the senate as a whole.

Affinity delegation 

During this J-term, the governing documents task force identified an affinity delegation as a possible way to reduce senate seats. 

The affinity delegation would be composed of leaders of Augustana’s affinity organizations. From there, two people from the delegation would be designated as ASA senators. 

“The consensus was that it was a bad idea from the people in the [governing documents] meeting,” Dixon said.

However, Dixon included the idea during the president’s report to the full senate on Feb. 4 to summarize what the governing docs task force worked on and discussed over J-term.  

According to Starks, the presentation of the affinity delegation left people with concerns and questions. 

“We just didn’t get as much feedback as we would have liked before presenting this idea,” Starks said. 

The governing docs task force tackled one of the four ideas each week during J-term, discussing the senate structure on the fourth week. 

Raleigh Lunderman, third-year senator and president of the Native American Student Association, said she was shocked there was no communication between the task force and affinity organizations before this idea was presented on Feb. 4. 

The Native American Student Association is an ASA-recognized affinity organization and is hoping to add an affinity senate seat soon. 

“I think it’s kind of crazy that nobody was consulted, not even Tyra [Hawkins] in the DEI office,” Lunderman said. “It was just contained within that task force.”

Senior Benita Manzengo, African Student Union president, said she originally heard about the idea through sophomore Beatrice Anyim, who represents the African Student Union in the senate. 

“I think that it was very shocking to me because it felt like the…conversations and ideas that were being put forth were without the consultation of the people who that was going to affect,” Manzengo said. 

According to Manzengo, Anyim also reached out to Hawkins, the assistant director of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office. 

JayVian Farr, Black Student Union senator and chair of ASA’s diversity, equity and social justice committee, said he heard of the affinity delegation via an email sent to affinity organization leaders by Hawkins.

“There’s different decisions that are going to impact Black students the most, and when there are no Black students at that meeting or in those conversations, I think it’s really insensitive and problematic because it doesn’t allow for those who it’s going to impact the most to truly be heard and exercise their right to express their opinions,” Farr said. 

Additionally, Farr said he does not believe an affinity delegation would adequately represent all affinity organizations. 

“It’s important that we all have an opportunity to represent our respective groups, without feeling like we have to compete to represent all affinity groups,” Farr said. 

Farr, Lunderman and Manzengo, as well as other affinity organization leaders, attended an ASA press briefing on Feb. 8 to learn more about the idea. 

Manzengo said the press briefing helped her understand that nothing surrounding the affinity delegation had been officially proposed but that the idea was a way to get the conversation started about shrinking the size of the senate. 

“If a conversation is going to happen, I think it’s important that the people who are going to be affected are a part of the conversation from the very beginning,” Manzengo said.  

Presently, Manzengo said she hopes conversations will be initiated sooner and with a better understanding of the reality for others. 

“I think that going forward, we need to find a better way to have tough conversations that leave the entirety of the student body feeling better," Manzengo said. 

Following the Feb. 4 ASA meeting and the Feb. 8 press briefing, Dixon said he does not believe the affinity delegation idea will move forward.

“From what I understand, there’s not a super big interest in changing anything from the senators themselves,” Dixon said. 

Adhikari said executive measures could be taken if necessary. 

“[The Executive Board] have discussed this properly too in case this comes as a hasty thing without proper communication with the concerned parties,” Adhikari said. “Then we can use executive measures to kill a bill.”

Farr said he will continue to advocate for the equal representation of affinity organizations. 

“We are going to continue to stand our ground and let it be known that we deserve to have a safe space and a place within ASA to provide unique perspectives that the majority of students don’t necessarily have to think about or don’t have,” Farr said.

Additionally, Farr said he encourages people to engage in uncomfortable conversations to understand the lived realities of their peers. 

“I truly believe that Augustana University will continue to be a better place if we continue to challenge the thoughts of people who are resistant to change but that we do it from a place of love,” Farr said.