Citing low retention rates and communication barriers within the current student government body, the Associated Students of Portland State University’s Vision and Reform Committee is proposing to restructure student government. If approved by the judicial board and senate, the revised structure will be placed on the student elections ballot this May.
Citing low retention rates and communication barriers within the current student government body, the Associated Students of Portland State University’s Vision and Reform Committee is proposing to restructure student government. If approved by the judicial board and senate, the revised structure will be placed on the student elections ballot this May.
The new proposed structure is nearing the final stages of development. The basic premise of the restructuring is that the current five branches of student government should be consolidated into three: a judicial board, an executive board and an executive cabinet.
The latter two would constitute an executive branch and will form the general assembly. The judicial board will continue to be a separate entity to ensure an efficient checks and balances system.
“We need to re-focus the way we represent, advocate and communicate with students,” said Donovan Powell, ASPSU publications director and vice chair of the reform committee. “Without these changes, I fear student government will lose its respect with poor leadership as it has in past years. These changes will ensure function that caters to the needs of the student body.”
Under the current government structure, the components of advocacy, policy and governance are split between the five branches.
The new structure would place these facets under the direction of the general assembly as a whole, functioning as a cooperative conglomerate of sorts, with general assembly meetings that involve all branches.
Within the general assembly is a constituency tracks component that would allow senate representatives to collaborate in groups in order to advocate for their constituents. The many constituencies, ranging from the School of Social Work to Students with Disabilities, will be housed under eight committees divided up by types, such as the Academic Affairs Committee or the Equal Rights Affairs Committee. Each senator would be required to fill two committees, resulting in five members per committee.
Powell explained that these committees would serve as task forces to better integrate members from student groups into the political process. “Assigned constituencies under the current system can be a mess for various reasons,” he said.
Powell pointed to reasons that stood out in particular, explaining that there are times when senators are not necessarily placed in the right constituency according to their strengths and interests, and how a senate that does not have full membership can lead to unrepresented student communities. “Because one person is assigned to only one constituency, there are varying work loads in which one constituency will need a lot of attention and will overwork a senator—often leading to resignation and thus greater turnover—whereas another constituency may not need much in way of advocacy,” Powell added.
The Vision and Reform Committee was established in August 2011 under the direction of ASPSU President Adam Rahmlow. Nick Rowe, who serves on the Student Fee Committee, was appointed to chair VARC, with Powell serving as vice chair. The Committee’s primary goal was to address communication issues between the branches of student government and the low retention rates of student government officials. The group started meeting biweekly to address these issues. After these initial meetings, it was concluded that a special task force was needed to effectively address the instability and the ineffectiveness of the student government.
Each VARC member is currently serving in other government positions, which has directly influenced their work with the committee and its central project. Sen. Amira Caluya serves on the VARC board Sen. along with Sen. David Coburn. Both expressed their general satisfaction with the proposal addressing the needs of senators specifically, the student government body and how it advocates for student groups. They believe the proposed restructuring would grant students a larger presence in the decision making process with the PSU administration.
“The main problem that this proposal addresses in my mind is the problem of internal division,” Coburn wrote in an email. “Our old model was based on the federal system, which was designed to be slow and encourage conflict, and one needn’t search far for anecdotes of student government conflict, whether intra-branch, with ‘ASPSU Vote to Retain Leaf Zuk’, [published in the Vanguard March 15] or interbranch, in regards to last year’s Incidental Fee Budget process. I feel this model brings everyone together and encourages people to collaborate by placing everyone in the same room and giving equal voice to what student government does,” Coburn added.
Coburn also pointed out that the proposed restructure also allows for a greater sense of continuity: “One of the other aspects of this I am excited about is that it brings together student government, so that when someone like Wim Wiewel or Monica Ramai wants to talk to student government en masse, there is a clear place to go and the best minds in student government get to hear them and ask questions regardless of what branch they are in,” Coburn said.
Powell added that by facilitating communication across functions, the new proposed model would cover more constituencies, leading to increased cooperation, communication, oversight and advocacy. “Everyone is in the same room communicating in an effort to eliminate communication breakdown,” Powell said.
Just wanted to shout out that both Giovanna (the writer of the article) and Meredith (the news editor) put forth a lot of hard work in meeting with VARC members, and really spent the extra time to meet with us to understand and absorb all of the information surrounding the issue–there is a ton; over 50 hours of meetings and 40+ hours outside of meetings have been put into ASPSU reform in the last month alone.
One quick clarification, the three bodies referenced in the article mention the Executive Branch twice.
The correct bodies are as follows:
– The Executive Branch
(comprised of an Executive Cabinet the chairs of the Advocacy Committees listed A-Z as follows:
– Academic Affairs Director
– Equal Rights Advocacy Director
– Legislative Affairs Director
– Metropolitan Affairs Director
– Multicultural Affairs Director
– Student Life Affairs Director
– University Affairs Director
and an Executive Staff, which are positions that require very specific specialized skill sets. Those positions are as follows:
– Chief of Staff
– Communications Director
– Operations Director
– Publications Director)
– The General Assembly (a body that is comprised of all members of ASPSU –with the exception of the Judicial Board which would have one representative–, to replace the current Senate)
– The Judicial Review Board (the “Review” part of the name is important as the branch inherits additional responsibilities)
Since none of these changes are in effect or finalized, the best way to stay up-to-date on changes is the ASPSU website: aspsu.pdx.edu.
This was a great article, i wish the online version had the pictures that the print one had. Great Job Giovanna!