The UF Student Senate will vote Tuesday on changes to its Rules and Procedures, which could have some tough implications for members of a minority party.
Under the new rules, the Senate president would have the power to remove any individual deemed to be "disruptive" from the Senate chambers.
"There has been behavior in the Senate which the sole purpose is to disrupt the legislative process," said Senate President and Unite Party member Micah Lewis, who did not write or sponsor the changes. "This legislation is a direct response to that behavior from the authors and sponsors."
However, there is no protection for senators during debate included in the rules.
According to the Senate rules, a Senate president is required to remain unbiased. However, if one, in theory, did not agree with the points made during debate, he or she could throw the disruptive senator out.
Currently the rules do not define disruptive behavior. The only safeguard of a senator's speech is the Senate itself. The Senate can vote to override the president's decision.
However, that just got harder. The new rules raise the override vote to a two-thirds vote from a simple majority. And even then, if the person in question is a minority party member representing an unpopular opinion, a Senate dominated by the Unite Party would not come to his or her aid.
Sen. Kevin Kleponis, an active minority voice in the Senate, said he has been called disruptive many times during Senate meetings.
"For demanding more information, I've been called disruptive," he said. "Speaking against Unite is disruptive to their agenda."
Rules and Ethics chairman and Unite Party member Severin Walstad, who authored the bill, said an amendment to the rules that would protect a senator's speech during debate is possible.
"There shouldn't even have to be a worry about that is the saddest part," Kleponis said. "This is clearly an attack on free speech."
Another rule adjustment relates to bills going through the judiciary process. The judiciary committee may also have the power to kill bills before reaching the Senate based on implication. Walstad describes implication as the effect legislation would have on the Student Body.
Sen. Carly Wilson, a Unite senator, said the change prevents legislation from getting a fair shake on the Senate floor.
"That's what we debate in Senate," she said. "We determine what we think the implication is for the Student Body. The judiciary's job is not to get rid of bills based on their content."
As of now, Senate Minority Leader Gillian Leytham is the only non-Unite senator of nine sitting on the judiciary committee.
Walstad said senators would still be able to introduce legislation on the Senate floor. Even then, it takes a two-thirds vote.
Though some rules could be changed, another faces the chopping block. A rule requiring senators' voting records to be posted online would be erased, a move that would appear to contradict one of Unite's main platform points: transparency.
Wilson, who chairs the Transparency ad-hoc committee, said it is now unclear how senators' voting records will be accessible to the public.
The records weren't always necessarily reliable, however. Wilson, though she refused to name any individuals, said she has seen senators mark votes on their record that differed with the vote they actually cast in the Senate chambers.
To her, it doesn't matter, though. The records should be public, she said.
"The X's they put down on that paper are what we hold them accountable for," she said.
