On April 29, the Associated Students of Portland State University met to discuss the final revisions to its governing Constitution and, ultimately, the entire structure of student government. The new Constitution was supposed to be finalized at the previous meeting on April 24, but because the session carried past 10 p.m. and the building had officially closed, the meeting was no longer considered public and had to be adjourned. The vision and reform committee consequently agreed to wrap up the final bits and pieces on Sunday, just a day before the April 30 deadline.
However, controversy arose during Sunday’s meeting when members within senate leadership pushed for a last-minute amendment. There had been disagreement among senators about whether to keep or change the preexisting system for how senators become members of the student fee committee. In the current Constitution, the student fee committee is composed of eight members: Seven are elected by the Portland State student body, and the remaining member is appointed by the ASPSU president.
The last-minute amendment echoed a failed amendment introduced at the April 24 meeting, which called for all eight members of the SFC to become elected positions. The amendment passed at the Tuesday meeting but was shortly revoked by a motion to reconsider, which reverted the language to its original form.
However, during Sunday’s meeting, Sen. pro tempore Leaf Zuk called for an amendment that would make all eight SFC positions elected. He brought it up as a “new” amendment, despite the fact that the motion had already failed at the previous meeting. This new amendment passed with 10 senators in support and seven opposed. The reintroducing of the motion was technically illegal by Robert’s Rules of Order.
The idea behind having one senator appointed to the SFC was to make sure someone on the committee understood student government as judged by the ASPSU executive staff. “The SFC allocates a $14 million budget of student fee dollars to student groups across campus, to everyone. So, hypothetically, if there are eight people elected who have never served in ASPSU and have no idea how ASPSU works, it’s completely irresponsible to have people messing up with a budget that large,” said one senator who wished to remain anonymous.
Those in support of the amendment argued that having a senator appointed to the committee violates democratic ideals and allows for possible corruption.
There’s no need for the president to be given a freebie card to install a lackey,” Sen. Marlon Holmes said. “We need to have more faith in the student body. An appointee would not act as an effective safety valve.”
Sen. Bearnard Kenyon also disapproved of the president’s ability to appoint a SFC member. “It’s a chance to circumvent the vote and appoint someone who supports the president,” he said.
ASPSU President Adam Rahmlow explained that having all eight members of the committee be elected positions came with its own set of issues. He explained that the presidential appointment served to fill a gap in expertise should it be warranted. “It allowed flexibility for ASPSU to moderate deficiencies resulting from the elections process, namely a potential lack of experience and diversity on the committee (for a $15 million budget, I think both are extremely important),” Rahmlow wrote in an email. “I was disappointed with the chair’s decision to entertain the amendment, especially given that the senate had already debated and voted on that issue.”
According to the anonymous senator, senate members are familiar with Zuk’s alleged manipulation of senate meeting conduct. “There were members of the senate who tried to explain to him the nature of his amendment who didn’t listen for whatever personal motives. The people who are not with him know there is no point of arguing with him because he won’t allow it,” the senator said.
I would say give up a small amount of democracy for a properly functioning SFC,” the senator added.
The new constitution was submitted to the judicial board for review and will be presented to the PSU student body for a vote during the upcoming ASPSU elections.
Structural reforms are being made in an attempt to create a more fluid and effective system of student government. “Within the constitution that we agreed upon, we have moved from a more senate-structured government to a more representative one, where each of the newly elected senators sits on more than one committee,” the anonymous senator said. “We went from 25 to 15 senators. It was designed to create more representation. There will be a multicultural committee and equal rights committee. Committees take on multiple constituencies of students,” the senator said.
The full list of committees under the new constitution is as follows: student fee committee, multicultural affairs committee, university affairs committee, academic affairs committee, metropolitan affairs committee, student life committee and the equal rights advocacy committee. The constitution did leave room for new committees to be put in place if approved by the senate.