During its last meeting, ASUI passed a bill to require all compensated officials of ASUI to be Green Dot trained, effective immediately.
Green Dot is a violence prevention organization that offers training about violence and sexual assault.
“I’m really happy that it’s going to be something that we’re all going to be learning more about,” said Sen. Laura Ehman, author of the bill.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. James Howard, requires paid ASUI officials to attend an all-day Green Dot training session within the first six months of holding office. The ASUI president and director of Safety and Violence Prevention will set up two designated trainings per semester.
Ehman said the passage of the bill will set a precedent, and that no other organizations at the University of Idaho have required all of their compensated members to be Green Dot trained.
Howard said the bill is the first step in possibly training the entire student body.
“It’s sickening in a sense that this is still such a big problem, and this is us saying we’re done with it,” Howard said.
Though many senators praised the program, a debate ensued about the necessity of making the training mandatory and whether the bill was realistic, given its all-day requirement.
“Yeah, we should all be Green Dot trained, but I don’t think that it’s necessary, or even within our prerogative, quite frankly, to mandate that of any member of ASUI,” Sen. Tanner Beymer said.
He said mandating the training could decrease enthusiasm to attend, and training should be voluntary to get the most out of the training.
ASUI Pro-Tempore Mattie Cupps said she agreed with Beymer’s statements, arguing that training would not be effective to those who do not want to participate in the first place.
“They’re not going to have a good attitude, it’s not going to sit well with them and they’re not going to get anything from it, so I don’t see why we would force people to go when there are people who want to take this course, people who will benefit from it more than those that were forced,” Cupps said.
Fellow senators argued against those mandate concerns, including Howard, who said the Green Dot training is similar to the diversity training already required in the ASUI Rules and Regulations.
“If you feel like this is not a part of your job description, then I don’t really know what you mean when you say … you are for the students,” Ehman said.
The bill was amended several times, adding language to exclude members who have been previously trained and language to allow the president, pro-tempore and director of Violence Prevention to excuse any member from attending.
Sen. Sam Balas, an Argonaut colomnist, said he was hesitant to support the bill at first, but after deliberating the issue he decided to vote in favor.
“If my eventual daughter went to this school, I would want as many people as possible to be Green Dot trained,” Balas said.
At the end of each ASUI meeting a senator awards a stuffed toy frog, “Larry the Leapfrog,” to a fellow senator they wish to commend. This week, Beymer used the frog as an olive branch to Ehman.
“For her dedication to ending sexual assault on the UI campus,” Beymer said.
Taylor Nadauld
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