Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on February 15, 2012

The vote was 26 in favor, 12 opposed and 0 not voting

(Senate Roll Call 95 at Senate Journal 0)

Click here to view bill details.

Senators Whitmer, Hunter, Johnson, Hopgood, Hood, Gregory, Young, Smith, Gleason, Bieda and Anderson, under their constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of Senate Bill No. 971. Senator Whitmer moved that the statement she made during the discussion of the bill be printed as her reasons for voting “no.” The motion prevailed. Senator Whitmer’s statement, in which Senators Hunter, Johnson, Hopgood, Hood, Gregory, Young, Smith, Gleason, Bieda and Anderson concurred, is as follows: I rise in opposition to this bill. This bill continues a theme from the majority party: If you don’t like the outcome of an election, just change the rules. It happened with local elections where the majority passed a bill to let state governments override the will of the local voters, when he passed the emergency financial manager legislation. It happened with county elections, where the majority passed a bill to throw out the redistricting process enacted by the county elected officials, just for Oakland County. Finally, it happened with statewide elections, where the majority changed the rules to make it harder for our citizens to petition their government to change the laws they live under. Now the principle has been extended to changing the rules before the election has even taken place. Because you think you know what the outcome is going to be, and you don’t like it, so you just want to change the rules again. This bill says we should not trust the judgment of the next generation of scientists, engineers, and educators. Instead, we should say that we in state government know better than they do. We know better whether they are employees or only students. I have never met a group of so­called conservatives who are so enchanted by the heavy hand of government. If Washington did this to Michigan, they would be running around yelling about socialism. There are many reasons to oppose this bill, from the governmental overreach to the dangerous precedent of involving university autonomy, but what it really boils down to is this: What do conservatives fear about people voting?

Senator Richardville asked and was granted unanimous consent to make a statement and moved that the statement be printed in the Journal. The motion prevailed. Senator Richardville’s statement is as follows: I rise to talk about Senate Bill No. 971 for a moment. Senate Bill No. 971 clarifies that graduate student research assistants are not employees under the Public Employment Relations Act. This bill will codify, actually, a thirty­year­old ruling in a long­standing interpretation by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission According to the Michigan Constitution, the Legislature may enact laws provide for the resolution of disputes concerning public employees, except those in state classified civil services. So all we are doing is codifying something that has been a longstanding tradition and interpretation, as I said, for over thirty years. What this bill does is seek to uphold the faculty­student relationship indicating that these students are students—seems like common sense would probably understand and dictate that—but the faculty serve as mentors to these students as they pursue advanced degrees. That is all we are doing, saying, gee, students are students, just like they have been for over thirty years

I see the full meaning of that but let's not forget that these students are those in need of support so it's important that they should be labeled on the side that gives them the most financial advantages. I am actually getting ready to start a new degree online program, I am hopeful that these bills will work in favor of the students.

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