Proposed changes to the ASPSU Constitution

Each year as part of the student government elections, the ASPSU Constitution is revised in order to work out previous kinks in the administration. It is then the job of Portland State students to determine whether or not these amendments seem appropriate.

Brad Vehafric, chief justice of the Judicial Board, assisted in these revisions.

“The purpose is to take what we have learned operationally, bureaucratically and logistically, and to make improvements to make more organizational structure,” Vehafric said. 

One of this year’s proposed changes is to establish more clear timelines for the Student Fees Committee and the student senate. There have been severe oversights in the past, and the senate has been unable to keep up with changes and deadlines.

Recently, the SFC had trouble when university President Wim Wiewel unexpectedly left town, requiring the budget to be submitted early.

The SFC and the university will be required to agree upon a date for submittal, and the SFC will need to review the budget for no less than 14 days, affording students availability to inquire.

Additionally, the revisions will go into more specifics about credit eligibility for ASPSU members. In the past, there was no specification stating that ASPSU members must be taking academic credits, versus non-academic or “pass/no pass” classes.

“We want to make sure we have good and clear standards for students to be eligible to participate,” Vehafric said.

This became an issue this year when a graduate student holding an ASPSU position was taking only non-academic credits, which caused the student to not have an official GPA and therefore unable to be seen in good academic standing, a necessity for ASPSU members.

The Judicial Board ruled the student ineligible, but this decision was eventually overturned due to the lack of clarity in the constitution.

Another matter in need of revision is the structure of the student senate. Traditionally, a student senator has been appointed to uphold the needs of each University Studies cluster program for the entirety of the year, a standard that has been difficult for the senate to maintain.

The proposed revision will mandate senators to be appointed to one cluster per term, and serve as that cluster’s official representative while still free to pursue other interests.

“We re-wrote this section to give the best of both worlds,” Vehafric said. “We wanted to create a language that would give senators the ability to conduct itself, while meeting a bare minimum of standards of equal representation for all.”

A less blatant alteration is the change of pronouns, from “he/she” to “they/their,” in an effort to ensure gender equality.

To vote on these approved revisions, students should visit banweb.pdx.edu.