After a month of debate among senators, Ty Reece was sworn in as senator by the ASUA supreme court yesterday, making the senate complete with all 10 members.

Reece, who stepped down as an appropriations board director, assumed the role of senator yesterday after a month of debate between senators and a week of confusion over the Associated Students of the University of Arizona constitution.

A two-thirds majority vote was required to get Reece into office, but with five members of the senate abstaining from voting Reece into office on Feb. 15, the Supreme Court pursued Reece’s request for review of the constitutional voting procedure.

According to Robert’s Rules of Order, a parliamentary procedure book that ASUA follows, an abstention vote is a refusal to vote and, as a consequence, there can be no such thing as an “”abstention vote”” because the outcome must be a majority vote or two-thirds of the votes cast.

According to a memo given to ASUA senators by the ASUA supreme court, Sen. Patrick Cook misunderstood Robert’s Rules of Order because he thought the five abstention votes were the same as five ‘nah’ votes.

Abstention votes actually count as non-votes, according the memo, making the three votes in favor of Reece a unanimous appointment for him to the senate.

Sen. Alex Dong, one of the senators to confirm Reece’s senatorial candidacy yesterday, said he was pleased with the outcome and that Reece deserved the opportunity because he was the 11th senator with the most votes in last year’s ASUA elections.

“”(Reece) is the best person for the job, there was really no other alternatives,”” said Dong, a molecular and cellular biology senior.

Reece, a nutritional sciences sophomore, said he’s glad the matter sorted itself out and is confident he can serve students’ needs with senate projects of his own and follow up on projects started by former Sen. Matt Loehman, who resigned because of an illness earlier this semester.

Loehman said his wish was for Reece to succeed him once he resigned.

“”I’m glad I have (Loehman’s) blessing and plan to continue what he started last semester,”” Reece said.

Dong said he’s confident Reece will be able to juggle his campaign for administrative vice president along with his senatorial duties the rest of the semester.

“”His focus will be at the job at hand,”” Dong said. “”It won’t be an interference.””

Reece agreed, saying it won’t be a problem, but the senate position will take some getting used to.

“”It will take some creative ingenuity to get ideas going,”” Reece said. “”My heart is with the senate. Where I am at now is the most important thing.””

With a full 10-member senate, Cook said there will no longer be a discrepancy in the rulings carried out at the weekly senatorial meetings.

“”We’ve fulfilled our constitutional duty to the student body with full representation,”” he said.