The OU Undergraduate Student Congress elected its new executive officers and passed two pieces of legislation in its Tuesday evening meeting.
Chair Crispin South, Vice Chair Sidney May and Secretary Hadi Fawad didn’t seek reelection, meaning the body saw nominations last week for each executive position.
The chair elections were held first and emeritus External Affairs Committee Chair Lacey Lewis was the only nominee. She has served in congress three years prior to her nomination.
Jordan Brown, Lewis’ former external affairs committee vice chair, had nominated Lewis last week. For his nominator’s speech, Brown said he believed Lewis was fit for the job because he has seen how “passionate and devoted” Lewis is, as well as her ability to “execute collaborative work.”
“Lacey is a proven leader and will do whatever it takes to see this body thrive,” Brown said. “Since working so close with Lacey, I know that her bipartisan leadership and devotion to making everyone feel included will allow this group of people to think in their comfort zone and get work done.”
Lewis spoke on her platform “F.O.C.U.S.,” standing for future, optimism, communication, understanding and sustainability. Her overarching goal being to increase transparency within the body and making congress a “safe and inviting space” for everyone.
“I would just like to help (everyone) become a better person and the leader (they) want to become,” Lewis said. “I remember being a freshman coming into this body, totally intimidated by everybody and feeling like I didn’t know anything, but people took me under their wing. I’m the person I am today because of Congress, and I wanted to do the same and give back in that respect.”
With an unanimous vote, Lewis was elected as congress chair, effective immediately.
Rep. Amelia Landry nominated emeritus Campus Outreach Safety and Concerns Committee Chair Bailey Trautman for vice chair, saying she has seen Trautman execute her chair duties effectively and that “there is no better fit” for vice chair.
Landry was up for the congress secretary position, having been nominated by Rep. Alondra Perez.
Both Trautman and Landry were also elected to their positions with unanimous votes.
Congress saw CR-108-07, the Support for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students Resolution of 2022 by Graduate Student Senate External Affairs and Human Diversity Committee Vice Chair Kyle Mattingly.
Mattingly said he wrote this resolution in response to the “vitriol” he has seen around the country and state toward transgender and gender nonconforming individuals following Gov. Kevin Stitt’s passage of the Save Women’s Sports Act, which requires certain athletic teams to be designated based on biological sex.
Mattingly said he asked himself what he could do to show his support for his transgender peers.
“Although this is largely symbolic, I did want to write a resolution to affirm those students in our university, and that they are welcome and they are part of the university,” Mattingly said.
With a vote of 19-2-0, the resolution passed and moved to be seen by GSS.
Congress also saw CR-108-4, the Support for HB 3720 Resolution. Oklahoma House Bill 3720 requires the addition of mandatory Holocaust and antisemitism education to be taught in public schools grades six through 12.
Rep. Nathanael Reese, who presented the resolution and is Jewish, presented a similar bill in front of the body two weeks ago, which sought to support the Norman Jewish community through properly defining antisemitism and recognize any acts of antisemitism that Jewish students at OU have experienced or witnessed.
The resolution passed unanimously and will also move to be seen by GSS.
Congress also saw six other pieces of legislation which were tabled to be seen next meeting. One resolution thanked Oklahoma Senators Kim David (R-Porter) and Jessica Garvin (R-Duncan) for their bipartisanship in their opposition of Oklahoma Senate Bill 1225, and another congratulated Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on her historic nomination.
The Supporting Indigenous Communities Resolution of 2022 and the Food Insecurity Awareness Resolution of 2022 sought to celebrate and support the OU Indigenous Community and recognize food insecurity respectively, and the SGA Civic Engagement Forum Resolution of 2022 sought to establish a civic engagement forum at OU.
Emeritus Parliamentarian Abby Halsey-Kraus’ bill sought to update and amend election procedures in the SGA Code Annotated by allowing all elections to occur on the 11th academic week of classes, allowing three weeks for campaigning and a new quorum for the election commission.
The Election Resolution Subcommittee was created to write this bill, which consists of emeritus Congress Chair Crispin South, SGA President Zack Lissau, GSS Chair Claire Burch, Election Commissioner Isaac Kabrick, General Counsel Nick Hazelrigg and Superior Court Chief Justice James Hutchison.
These pieces of legislation were seen in the Committee of the Whole — when the congressional body formed one committee to see bills for the first time — and were given recommendations of “Do Pass.”
Senior speeches were heard from emeritus Human Diversity Committee Chair Caitlyn Harman, emeritus Sustainability Committee Chair Jake Lange, Ways and Means Committee Chair Lauren Patton, former Rep. Eileah Hale and South.
South said it was “bittersweet” giving his final chair’s report.
“Being able to work with (everyone in congress) has just been absolutely fantastic,” South said. “Believe it or not, I have been Congress chair for 504 consecutive days (since) I was elected on Dec. 1 of 2020, so it has been quite a time (and) it’s definitely been a journey … but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
