The Undergraduate Student Congress passed a resolution recognizing national freedom of speech week and amended the code annotated to delay stipend alterations at its meeting Tuesday.
Free speech resolution
The news: Congress passed a resolution protecting free speech and recognizing national freedom of speech week.
The resolution recognizes the third week of October as free speech week, supporting the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and safe protests on OU campus.
The resolution urges OU administration to ensure students’ right to free speech remains protected and acknowledges the university allows peaceful protests to occur on campus, no matter the background or views of an organization.
The resolution cites OU President Joseph Harroz Jr., who told the OU Daily in September 2024 that the university shouldn’t teach students what to think, but rather how to think.
Copies of this resolution were sent to Harroz, Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students David Surratt, OU Students for Justice in Palestine, Executive Director of OU Hillel Kasi Shelton and OU Turning Point USA.
What they’re saying: Fine Arts District Rep. Leo Carter, who authored the bill, said free speech is a huge part of democracy.
“This legislation says that OU is going to protect students who do peacefully protest, specifically,” Carter said.
One representative asked why a copy of this resolution was sent to OU Turning Point USA, which the author did not comment on. Carter acknowledged the accidental exclusion of OU College Democrats and OU College Republicans from receiving copies of the resolution.
“We would love to correct that oversight,” Carter said about amending the resolution to include the two organizations.
Associate Sam Bregnard was a first-time co-author for this resolution.
The vote: Congress unanimously passed this resolution.
Preventing compensation alterations
The news: Congress passed a bill preventing compensation alterations from taking effect until regular election or appointment of certain positions has occurred.
The bill states that any alteration to a salary or stipend amount enacted in accordance with the SGA Constitution and Code Annotated should not go into effect until a regular election or appointment of the respective position has occurred. The policy applies when compensation is modified for one or more undergraduate student congress officers, graduate student senate officers, the SGA president or vice president, or any other elected or appointed committee chair position.
What they’re saying: Engineering District Rep. Coleman Morgan, who authored the bill, said the bill requires that any alteration in salary has to be given oversight by Congress, or when necessary, the Senate.
“This just shows that we still hold some review in the changing of salaries,” Morgan said. “God forbid (there is) anyone just trying to increase their salary, we have some say.”
Rep. Hope Rhoads asked about the purpose of including a scheduled vote of “no confidence” within the legislation.
“That was something we didn’t have initially, and we had amended it. That was just more oversight, truly,” Morgan said.
Morgan said that many positions are appointed in both the winter and spring.
“I see no reason why we can’t look out for our officers at least two times a year,” Morgan said.
Rhoads asked about the potential for individuals using this legislation with the intention of simply increasing their salary.
“That is a possibility, but I think as a whole that this body is going to act in the right way toward this situation,” Morgan said. “I don’t see that being an issue.”
The bill will be added to the code annotated, extending to both Congress and the Graduate Student Senate.
“We initially had president and (vice president) in there, and we got an opinion from general counsel saying that we were good to go with the president and the (vice president) because the language we had (in the bill) is in line with the (SGA) constitution,” Morgan said.
The vote: Congress unanimously approved this bill.
This story was edited by Natalie Armour, Ana Barboza and Thomas Pablo.
