By Steve Babcock

As the weekly Student Government meeting moved into debate Thursday, Vice President of Academic Affairs Andres Vargas was asked to approach the podium. Just two days prior to the meeting, senators unified to elect Vargas to his new position. On this day, however, Vargas was put on the podium to be questioned rather than applauded.

As debate raged on in the SGA this week over a resolution that would make it mandatory for students to meet with their advisors once a year or have their classes blocked, emotions, as well as the stakes of passage of the legislation, grew higher.

The characterization of the current advising system as “sub-par” by the SGA as a whole has raised a conflict over the best way to deal with the problem. The mandatory meetings and subsequent blocks that have been proposed have indeed caused a rift in NU’s student government, accenting the association’s varying opinions on whether students or administrators should be held responsible for clearing up the problem.

Some, like Senator Jason Kravitz, argue that the mandatory nature of the legislation puts too much of the responsibility on students, and not enough on the administration.

“A block [on classes] should be a last ditch effort,” he insisted.

He continued to argue that the spirit behind the legislation was directed in the wrong way.

“This legislation puts another piece of bureaucracy in a school that has more bureaucracy than the federal government. Let’s develop legislation that hits the heart of the problem,” he said, referring to the administration.

Vice President Vargas argued that the resolution was heading in the right direction, because it would boldly highlight the problems with the advising system.

“How dare this university set up a system that is unable to handle all the students,” he said. “That is unacceptable. We will not allow students to slip through the cracks.”

With the administration so much at fault, according to SGA, backing for the legislation is somewhat in question. Vargas said that the advising administration “seem to support this.” Within the student body, support in favor of the measure is running over 50 percent, according to NU poll data.

However, those notions are in direct contradiction to Senator Kravitz, who attacked the entire structure of SGA, saying that, “if this organization were elected directly by students, this resolution would never pass. I haven’t talked to one person who supports this idea.”

Voting, which was originally scheduled for Thursday, was postponed once again until the following Thursday. The SGA’s rules call for a two-week period for debate on any legislation, with a vote coming at the conclusion of the second week. Usually, the rule is suspended and voting takes place at the end of the first meeting’s debate. In this rare case, though, voting was suspended again.

After the meeting, when senators had calmed down, several reflected on the importance of being able to have a civil, yet heated debate.

“It’s a testament to the leadership and President Schwabacher,” said Vice President for Financial Affairs Michael Benson.

The stakes riding on the passage of this resolution remain high. As Vargas laid out at the conclusion of the meeting, “If we don’t pass a measure, then this organization has failed.”