The members of the ASUWT have shifted their focus from this year’s concerns with the graduation speaker to the future procedures for the planning of commencement.

Still unsure about what will come of this year’s commencement speaker Sarah Weddington, ASUWT President Brian Feller said that in the mean time, the senate is taking action about next year’s process to make sure that the students can have a voice.

“ASUWT will be demanding that there be more student involvement in the [commencement speaker selection] process,” said Feller last week.

While the ASUWT is working on the future, the questions for the upcoming commencement remain the same.

ASUWT put out a survey last week trying to gauge how the students feel about the selection of Sarah Weddington as their commencement speaker.

In the senate meeting on Feb. 6, the senators gathered their data to make a decision.

“We need to let the students know [what we decide] so we can talk about our decision,” said ASUWT President Brian Feller about the purpose of the survey.

But it didn’t happen.

With the evacuation on the morning of Feb. 6, the senate meeting was shorter than necessary, and senators say that the time restraint impeded on the ability of the senate to have a complete discussion and reach a decision.

Meanwhile, students are becoming impatient and increasingly upset about the issue.

“This seems to be a politically motivated action taken by the UW administration rather that an academic one,” said one student on the condition of anonymity. “Please help us get another speaker before the chaos begins. This issue will not go away and demonstrators are, undoubtedly, already making their plans.”

After a long debate, the ASUWT senators decided that the survey was not adequate means for making their decision as to what the students want.

According to Senator Mark Dodson, the ASUWT will be basing their final decision on whether or not to take a stand by the forums, the survey and any input they receive directly from the students.

“We’re trying to get as many people to talk to us as possible,” said Dodson.

The forums on Wednesday Feb. 12 at 12:50 p.m. and Thursday Feb. 13 at 5:40 p.m. were put together to allow the students to express their opinions to UWT Chancellor Vicky Carwein and Associate Director of Student Services, Steve Smith. Both forums will be held in the Keystone auditorium.

The commencement survey results showed that the majority of seniors, more than 55 percent, were not affected by the commencement speaker selection when it came to attending to graduation, with over 50 percent stating that they would definitely be attending.

Another 18 percent said that they would probably be attending. There were 259 respondents total to the survey.

Many juniors also responded to the survey, but it was graduate students and seniors that produced the majority of responses. Approximately 23 percent of seniors and 23 percent of graduate students took the survey.