E&CR proposes changes to senate

Pending approval by the student senate Wednesday afternoon, the makeup of the senate will be revised drastically next year to include members elected specifically from seven of the university’s schools and colleges.

Amara Marino, chair of the Evaluation and Constitutional Revision Committee (E&CR), convened a final meeting of her committee Sunday to iron out the committee’s final proposal on changes to the constitution. It will go to the senate for discussion, possible revision and approval Wednesday at 12:45 p.m.

The almost revolutionary change proposed is to elect one voting member each from the School of Fine and Performing Arts, the School of Social work, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Urban and Public Affairs.

Under the proposed change, at-large members will total 15. By contrast, 19 present senate members were elected at large. Eliminated will be the present one student from each of the Student Development clusters, an entity which has been renamed Student Activities and Leadership Development. Also eliminated is the one Student Fee Committee member appointed by the ASPSU president.

The E&CR originally proposed there be one representative from each of the five Student Activities and Leadership Development clusters, fine and performing arts, recreation, service, multicultural and political. This would have reduced the number of at-large members to 10.

“We decided this might appear to result in some double-dipping,” Marino said. The student development category was eliminated and the at-large number bumped up to 15.

Marino said it was deemed advisable to change the proposal to include more than the 10 at-large members in the committee’s former proposal. She suggested it might not be easy to attract candidates from the specific schools and colleges.

By cutting the present 19 at-large members almost in half, down to 10, “we might be excluding people who want to be included,” she said. “We have been having trouble getting people to run. It’s hard to get people to run for these slots.”

The new proposal originally called for two freshmen rather than the one in this year’s senate, and that was increased to three. There was to be one graduate student representative to be appointed by the ASPSU president, but that was eliminated.

The final Senate makeup, if approved, will thus total 15 at-large members, plus one from each of seven schools and colleges and the three freshmen, retaining the total membership at the present 25.

The constitutional revision procedure faces tight deadlines.

“The elections committee gave us until Wednesday,” Marino said. The elections for the 2003-04 academic year will occur March 12, 13 and 14.

Marino and other members of the E&CR committee will attend the Wednesday senate meeting to answer questions and be ready to vote on immediate revisions, if necessary.

“We want the senators to ask questions,” she said. As to the revised constitution, “Once it passes the student senate, it goes to the elections committee, which will put it on the ballot.”

The revisions, if adopted as proposed, leave the ASPSU president with considerable power over student government. The president will appoint the three freshman senators, and one of the seven members of the Student Fee Committee, plus the treasurer in an advisory capacity. The president will also appoint three of the five members of the E&CR committee and nominate chairpersons of standing committees, except that the chair of the Student Fee Committee remains an elective position.

The three non-voting members would continue to be the chair of the senate, who is the ASPSU vice president; the chair of the Student Fee Committee; and the ASPSU treasurer, an appointed office.

Marino served on the E&CR committee last year and is the only returning member. A junior in speech communications and political science, she is running for ASPSU president. Her running mate for vice president is Joe Johnson.

She said if any matters arise in the senate deliberation that might seem to present a conflict of her interest due to her candidacy, she will refrain from participating in that specific vote of the E&CR committee. That reservation also applies to any constitutional reconsiderations concerning the Student Fee Committee, of which she also is a member.