By Steve Babcock
The Student Government Association decided to take up the new version of their constitution proposed by the Senate Restructuring Committee for debate at a marathon Joint Senate meeting Monday.
The vote that decided which version of the constitution to debate came an hour and a half into the meeting, and was supposed to be the first phase of a joint senate that would emerge with an amended constitution to be put through upper administration this year.
That process, however, was derailed when multiple concerns about parliamentary procedure, including the format for senators to bring their amendments to the new constitution to the floor, were brought out during debate.
After a number of conferences between President Richard Schwabacher, who is in charge of running meetings, Senate Restructuring Committee Chair Sharif Zied and SGA faculty advisor Professor Gerald Herman, the senate voted to suspend parliamentary procedure for the remainder of the meeting, effectively postponing votes on changes for a later time.
“I think it would be best if we suspended parliamentary procedure tonight so we can get everyone talking,” Schwabacher said.
He said that he was confused about the rules of debate.
Zied agreed that moving into “committee of the whole,” as the suspension of parliamentary procedure is called, was the right step for the direction of the meeting.
“This is really the first time anything like [overhauling the entire constitution] has been done in a long time,” he said. “There are a lot of issues that still need to be worked out. I just want to hear what everyone has to say.”
Before the decision to suspend the rules, though, the senate did engage in livened debate over which vice president should hold the executive vice president title.
The executive vice president is, like the U.S. Vice President, responsible for picking up where the president leaves off in case of his absence. Effectively, the position is SGA’s second-in-line to communicate with SGA about issues on campus, as well as any outside groups.
Under the current SGA constitution, the executive vice president fulfills the role of the vice president for student affairs. The restructuring commitee’s plan would have it fall under the newly created vice president for administration and public relations. The new position, in addition to being the executive vice president, would also be a consolidation of the current student affairs and administration vice presidencies in terms of outreach by SGA.
Vice President for Academic Affairs Andres Vargas said that it was “insane” to put such a workload on one person.
“The E.V.P. [Executive Vice President] is the backbone of this organization. The committee has oversimplified the position,” he said. “You have put it at such a level that it is doomed to failure.”
Senators also expressed concern that student affairs would now hold a lesser priority for SGA because it would no longer have the executive vice presidency. Some felt this would be the least effective way to reach out to students, which was the main intent of creating the new position.
“The question is how do we ask [students about issues],” said current Executive Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Romano, who is running for president in Wednesday’s elections. “We need to ask them directly. I think we’re not understanding that student affairs is the most effective way to reach out to students.”
Zied said the committee’s intent was not to make the position reliant on marketing schemes.
“You are stuck in the old thinking,” he said. “This position isn’t going to be going and saying ‘SGA is so cool’ to students. The idea is to get out and talk to students personally, or conduct surveys to get students’ feelings on issues. [The position] is designed to collect as much opinion as possible.”
Senator Samuel Klar, who is running against Romano in the election, said that the new position was starting over from square one, whereas student affairs wouldn’t be able to.
“Before you know what the student affairs are, you need to ask the students,” Klar said.
Schwabacher agreed, warning the organization that it could be digging itself into the proverbial hole by not gaining student legitimacy before tackling issues.
“The average student does not know what we do,” the SGA president said, raising the tone of his voice. “I want to see this organization continue to fight, but I have a feeling in my heart of hearts that it will not continue to fight unless we choose anyone other than the vice president [for admininstration and public relations] who is going to go out and reach out to the students.”
As the debate about the new position was moving toward a direction of speaking and gaining support for constituents at around 9:30 p.m., Vice President for Administration Emerald Gravel made a motion for the Senate to go into Executive Session, effectively removing all members of the meeting who were not recognized senators.
“I know there are some senators that do not feel as comfortable when they know other people are listening,” she said.
Schwabacher added that the problem was one he had “as a kid.”
The meeting adjourned around 11 p.m., according to those who attended.
