The UOSA Undergraduate Student Congress voted in favor of putting two disputed constitutional amendments on the UOSA Spring 2010 General Election ballot instead of holding a special election.

The Congress approved the last-minute agenda item concerning the UOSA Superior Court’s hearing on Monday, requiring an election date on ballot the amendments offered by Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society to be set.

Three members abstained from voting, while another two members voted “no.” thirty-one members voted in favor of the resolution to move the amendments to the upcoming general election.

“We couldn’t work out scheduling with [the UOSA Graduate Student Senate]... we’ve spoken with GSS leaders, and they’ve agreed on holding the [ordered] election during the spring [general] election,” said UOSA Student Congress Vice Chairman Matthew Gress.

Representative Shayna Daitch, humanities district, international securities studies and Judeo studies junior, said the method of the bill was “shady.” She also said there was a “lack of transparency,” and that the passage of the bill was “hasty.”

The UOSA Superior Court heard arguments Monday that the UOSA legislative branch was too slow to act on the court’s ruling last November, which ordered two amendments that could dramatically reshape the legislative branch to be put up to a student vote.

Student Congress also voted 34-1 in favor of appointing six members to committee chair positions. The chair positions were decided by the Congress’ presiding officers.

Gress said that the appointments were “special legislation that bypasses the normal processes.” For this reason, UOSA members could not amend the legislation.

But one member stood alone in opposition to the appointments.

“Why write a piece of legislation and present it to the body if we cannot amend it?” Daitch said.

Daitch voted against the appointments after being denied the chance to ask questions to the new appointees.

“I was really disappointed that we weren’t allowed to ask our chair applicants questions,” Daitch said. “They were able to stand up and talk about themselves, but we weren’t able to ask them questions and I just don’t feel right about that.”

The chair appointees introduced themselves and described their qualifications and goals before the entire body that night.