Legislators fighting for colleges have leaders at USU
The Utah Intercollegiate Assembly (UIA) writes legislation to help colleges and universities, and this year is composed of many members from Utah State University.
Justin Huff, legislative vice president of the Utah Student Association and a student at Utah State University, said, “In a nutshell, we are the legislative branch of the Utah Student Association and each school based on population has a certain number of delegates as well as three senators.”
He said the UIA is set up much like the United States’ government, with a House of Representatives and a Senate.
Celestial Starr Bybee, Associated Students of USU vice president, said she oversees and mentors the delegates who represent USU. USU has three senators, nine representatives and two staff. Braden Jenkins, delegate chair, trains the delegates.
Huff said UIA started in 1972 and was originally intended to teach students how the legislature worked, but it has evolved and now helps legislate student issues.
Cherissa Smith, a senior in political science and USA attorney general, oversees the rules committee. The rules committee is composed of the 11 delegate chairs from each college in Utah. She said she oversees the month-to-month workings and trains them. The delegate chairs then go back to their schools and instruct the other delegates.
“I think UIA has helped students have their voice heard,” she said. “There is more lobbying and debating.”
Bybee said, “Last year, we were supposed to prepare three pieces of legislation [to take to UIA] and we wrote five or six. Then, we pawned [the extra] off to other schools.”
She said after a bill is passed in UIA, it goes to the Utah Council of Student Body Presidents. They vote to decide what bills to take action on. Huff is a voting member, as is Steve Palmer, ASUSU president. Last year, three of the four pieces of legislation came from UIA.
“I take issues to the student body presidents,” Huff said. “They select what ones are most important. Not all [pieces] pertain to all schools or students.”
Every spring, Huff said, the delegates from all over Utah go to Salt Lake City and debate on the capitol floor.
Bybee said, “We get to sit in the actual Representatives’ and Senators’ seats and use the microphones. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a ton of fun.”
“The Senate generally takes more time and is more low key [than the House],” she said. “Just like our government.”
The next legislative session for UIA will be in April and will last for three days.