CUSG Legislative Council on Strike

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect the sentiments from each CU Student Government Branch and how the Legislative Branch-wide strike will affect students. 

Updated: Wednesday, Oct. 13 at 8 a.m. MST

On Monday, Oct. 11, the Legislative Council—one of three student government branches—at the University issued a statement that the council would be on strike until further notice. 

The legislative council states they have made multiple attempts to address racism within the entire CU Student Government organization. Additionally, the Legislative Council is displeased with decisions made by current and former Tri-Executive Student Body Presidents to allow CU administration to fire elected members of student government, have the potential to overturn the impeachment decisions of the legislative council and the lack of transparency behind the conversations between the Executive Branch and Chancellor Phil DiStefano and other administrators. 

“Legislative Council has gone on strike to protest the adverse effects of racism, sexism, branch inequity and a lack of regard for student autonomy,” said Legislative Council Vice President Nikky Garaga. “… All of [the Legislative] Council was extremely blindsided to hear from alumni of CUSG that major changes had been made to the Chancellor’s Agreement by the Tri-Executives.”

The Chancellor’s Agreement allows all elected members of CUSG to act as representatives for the nearly 36,000 undergraduate and graduate students at CU Boulder, which essentially ensures autonomy for the government.

Discerning the release from the Legislative Branch, the other two branches—the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch—have since released statements.  

“To the same effect that the Legislative Branch and Judicial Branch of CUSG are afforded checks over the Executive Branch, the Executive Branch is provided the ability to revise the Chancellor’s Agreement,” said CU Student Body President Kavya Kannan in a statement on behalf of the Tri-Executive team.

The Legislative Strike

Due to the strike, the Legislative Council will be halting all new internal affairs but will continue to hold regular meetings on Thursday from 7 p.m. to roughly 10 p.m., which is live streamed on Facebook. 

Beginning with CUSG’s formation in 1974, students urged administrators to let them have a say in certain university matters and control over a portion of the University budget. University administration granted a three branch system with specific powers that include decisions over a $25 million budget encompassing the finances of the University Memorial Center, Student Recreation Center, Program Council and the Center for Student Involvement, among others. 

Additionally, CUSG has budgetary decision making over student club events and organizes Homecoming, the Diversity Summit and the Inclusive Sports Summit. 

The Executive Branch consists of the Tri-Executives—three student body presidents—and their staff and Freshmen Council. The Legislative Branch—or Council—consists of a Representative Council and Council members from each college or school. The Judicial Branch consists of seven justices, but only four justices are currently serving, meaning the Branch cannot perform its traditional functions.

According to Garaga, the Legislative Council took steps to reflect a system of checks and balances. In this current term, the Appointments Committee—who is responsible for holding hearings to ratify Executive and Judicial Branch members—postponed a ratification hearing for the fifth justice until blatant displays of disrespect stopped from the Executive Branch.

Following such matters, the Tri-Executives did not attend the Legislative Council meeting to listen or dispute. Rather, they sent their cabinet members to speak on their behalf. 

“Instead of hearing us out and combating the problem, the Executive’s solution was to send a crowd of their cabinet members to a Legislative Council meeting to yell at and make examples out of myself, other members of Appointments Committee, and Council in a public meeting,” Garaga said. “To be clear, not only is this a Constitutional right that the Appointments Committee holds over the Executive Branch to use as they see fit, President Khan and I had come to an agreement with the Executives before this meeting to start seeing ratifications again.”

The Tri-Executives issued a statement on Monday, expressing their response to the claims brought forth by the Legislative Council. 

“As the elected Tri-Executives, we are deeply committed to helping CUSG continue to become an inclusive environment and space where marginalized communities feel heard and valued,” said Kannan in an email statement to The Bold. “This commitment to diversity and inclusion did not just begin upon us entering these roles. These values and ideas informed the campaign we led, which was heavily influenced and supported by various groups within multicultural communities at CU Boulder.” 

The full statement for the Tri-Executive team can be found here. 

Chancellor Agreement Explained

The Tri-Executive team is granted powers from the University to amend and revise the Chancellor Agreement, which was revised by the previous Tri-Executive administration on November, 2, 2020 and most recently, on Oct. 4, 2021. 

These recent amendments, which allow CU administration to remove any member of CU Student Government is why the Legislative Branch resorted to striking.

But this isn’t the first time this has happened in CUSG’s history. In 2013, the Tri-Executives amended the Chancellor Agreement sparking heated protests from the Legislative Council which ultimately resulted in a cross-branch resolution more than a year later. 

The pattern of conflicts and disputes between branches, from one term to the next, reveals the interplay of political power, not only in 2021 but over the span of eight years.

“Moving forward, I would like to see the changes made to the Chancellor’s Agreement nullified and to have [the] Legislative Council be put in the loop with any changes made in the future,” Garaga said. “I’d just like the student body to know that our primary duty is to them, and these decisions have been made with the intent to create a system that better serves them.”

Both the Tri-Executives and Judicial Chief Justice have not responded for further comments. 

“We’re privileged to have one of the most autonomous student governments in the country and I just think it’s short sighted to throw that away over this cabinet appointees debate,” said Quintin Fellows, a Legislative Liaison.