By Steve Babcock

The Student Government Association’s Senate Restructuring Committee laid out plans at a relatively calm and sparsely-attended Joint Senate in Snell Library’s basement Monday to reformat some of the ways Student Government operates through changes to the organization’s constitution and by-laws.

The measures include the creation of a new Vice President for Administration and Public Relations, the creation of an Ethics Committee and a reorganizing of which vice presidents will chair the Student Affairs Board and Student Center Governing Board.

According to Senator Sharif Zeid, the chairman of the Restructuring Committee, the proposed changes to the positions are necessary to “move forward” in SGA’s constant attempt to reach students on campus more effectively.

“You have to go back to where we derive our legitimacy,” Zied said. “No issue, academic affairs or student affairs, matters unless we have the support of the students.”

In order to pass this plan, the Senate first debates and votes on it next week. In the next step the new constitution and by-laws would go through a series of steps, culminating with the president of the university signing the package.

After the president’s signature, the new policies would not take effect until 2004-2005.

If passed, the new focus of SGA would be centered around students, which restructuring committee member Jason Kravitz, agrees with. He said currently SGA is underperforming, in terms of student outreach.

The main reorganization proposed by the restructuring committee would involve a reworking of the current vice presidents tasks, taking pieces from the Vice President of Administration and Student Affairs to encompass both oversight of the entire Senate, responding to student needs, as well as for the general day-to-day operations and outreach programs that the Senate is involved with. As a result, a new position would have two separate committees to oversee; one for public relations and one for administration. They would also work alongside two assistant vice presidents, one to “sharpen the focus” in each area, according to the presentation.

The new VP role would consolidate some of the roles of Student Affairs and Administration, taking away the student outreach portion of the Student Affairs Committee.

Michael Romano, SGA vice president for student affairs, said the university’s Student Affaris division is working under “limited resources,” and SGA needs to recognize the need to preserve what already exists.

“While marketing and outreach are some of the most critical determinants of (SGA’s) success, it is my hope that Student Government will make the right choice in supporting Student Affairs by supporting its role in servicing our students to the highest regard,” Romano said.

Kravitz said that having more titles provides more gratification for student senators. “If we give [senators] more titles, it’ll feel more like they’re a part of the process.”

Another possible change would be the dividing of chairmanship of the Student Center Governing Board Student Affairs Board. First, the SAB would be renamed as the Student Appeals Board. The board would handle appeals from student groups after they have been turned down funds by the Budget Review Committee, or Curry Student Center office space by the SCGB.

The SCGB,currently chaired along with the SAB by the Vice President for Student Affairs, would now be led by the Vice President for Student Services.

“It’s not fair that when you’re trying to appeal that you have the same set of people hearing your argument twice. It’s a conflict of interest,” Zeid said. “It’s worked in the past, but now we have three separate people chairing three separate committees.”

Another new position proposed by the restructuring committee is Speaker of the Senate, who would make sure all meetings follow parliamentary procedure, including time keeping for debate and keeping order.

The Speaker would also chair a new Ethics Committee that would provide a forum for bringing complaints about executive board members to the public, but would have no direct impeachment authority. The Ethics Committee would also have ties to the university Judicial Affairs committee.

For Zeid and the committee, who have worked on the proposal since September, the one-year waiting period is too long to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Zeid said that after a talk with Vice President of Student Affairs Karen Rigg, he believed he could convince the university to waive the waiting policy.

“The university is changing next year, and we don’t want to wait until after that happens,” he said. “Right now, I will do anything necessary to get this to take effect next year.”