by Rachel Rippetoe|
Voting on changes to the ASUP constitution (as well as on a temporary ASUP president) begins today and runs through 8 p.m. tomorrow. Check out the proposed changes to the constitution:
Creation of “speaker of the Senate” position, an ex-officio member of the Executive Board that serves as a liaison between the Senate and the Executive Board.
What does this mean? The speaker of the Senate is a non-voting member of the Executive Board. He/she will be one of the 17 elected senators and will be voted on by the 17 senators. The speaker will go to Executive Board meetings as well as regular Senate meetings. The position is in charge of running the meetings, forming committees and nominating committee chairs.The position is considered the middle-man between Senate and the Executive Board. The speaker will listen to senators’ constituency reports and report back on them to the Executive Board. They will also be the tiebreaker among the Senate, voting only when the senators are split in half on an issue (8 votes to 8 votes).
It is still undetermined whether this position will have a stipend or not. However, if the budget does approve the stipend for the position, it will not cost students directly. It may affect the money allocated to other projects, however, as the money has to come either CPB event funding or club funding.
Why the proposed change? According to senators Annie Rodriguez and John Akres, the co-writers of the new constitution, the creation of this position is meant to allow for a more linear, rather than horizontal, allocation of power. Instead of the Executive Board dealing directly with senators in a less organized way, senators take their concerns to the speaker.
The speaker will take on many of the responsibilities that are currently presided over by the vice president. The Senate feels that the vice president rarely has the opportunity to work on seeing strong political ideas through, due to being bogged down with administrative duties. In giving administrative duties to this new position, ASUP hopes that the roles of the vice president and the president can become more political.
Vice president takes over management of ASUP services as well as being election committee chair.
What does this mean? With the speaker of the Senate dealing with more administrative duties like Senate training, the hope is that the the vice president can focus on more political, student-oriented goals. The VP will serve as a supervisor to the directors of Pilots Express, ADvantage, Espresso UP and Pilots Audio and Lighting. The VP will meet with student leaders and be more of a transparent source of information for the student body.While the VP’s office hours in the ASUP Office in Student Activities are about 10 hours a week currently, they will most likely increase to 15 or 20 if this constitutional change passes. The VP will also take on a role that is currently presided over by the ASUP Secretary: election committee chair.
Why the proposed change? It is ASUP’s goal to make the vice president a greater political force within the student body. While the president will continue to work directly with the administration, ASUP hopes to have the vice president working directly with the student body, through office hours and working with student leaders and clubs.
Treasurer becomes finance director and is allowed to appoint a controller if necessary.
Although the name has changed, the duties of treasurer are to remain more or less the same.Secretary becomes the communication director and has an increased responsibility in communicating with the student body.
What does this mean? Currently, the main role of the ASUP Secretary is to record the minutes at Senate meetings and run elections. Now that the vice president will be chair of the election committee and Senate meetings will be more or less run by the speaker of the Senate, the secretary can run and be elected on a more specific skill set: communication.The new role of communication director is essentially the PR representative for ASUP. He/she will get the word out about what ASUP is doing and what changes they are making throughout the student body. The communication director will be in charge of improving the ASUP website, making fliers and signs and other promotional duties along those lines.
Why the proposed change? In the past, the job of communicating what is happening within ASUP to the public has been divided among all of the Senate and Executive Board. In concentrating this responsibility into one position, it will be easier for ASUP to be held accountable for promoting transparency. With the duty of informing students about what is going on simply falling on unpaid senators, ASUP fears that it is not happening effectively.
Also, in alleviating the secretary (or communication director) of his/her other duties, the student body can elect someone who is specifically qualified for their promotional responsibilities, hopefully resulting in a candidate who will be passionate about getting the word out about ASUP happenings.
Restructuring of Senate size: 17 Senate positions
Two per Class (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior)
Nine to be divided among the Schools
What does this mean? If passed, the Senate will be reduced from 35 senators to 17, getting rid of residence hall senators as well as off-campus senators.Why the proposed change? According to Rodriguez and Student Activities Director Jeromy Koffler, there is currently a lot of overlap in constituencies of senators, resulting in a lack of productivity. Residence hall senator positions are primarily held by underclassmen as well as many positions within the schools. As the number of senators for each residence hall is determined by population of students (i.e., one senator for every 300 students), the growth in population size the university has seen in the last two years has made the number of residence hall senators too high, giving a disproportionate number of seats in the Senate to underclassmen.
The residence hall senators also appeared to be the logical section of senators to cut out because they already have an internal system of governance with hall directors and hall councils. Koffler said the majority of residence life issues brought to ASUP’s attention are work orders, an issue that should be addressed by a hall director, not student government.
The smaller number of senators is also an attempt to make running for a seat in senate a more competitive process. With fewer seats, senators have to work harder to get elected, and will hopefully be more committed to their jobs.
Elections: All elections, except for freshman positions, will be in the spring.
What does this mean? As it stands right now, Senate elections are held in the fall, while Executive Board elections are held in the spring. The new constitution would change this so that all positions are elected in the spring except for the two positions allocated to freshmen, which will still take place in the fall.Why the proposed change? The Senate has a difficult time getting things done in the fall semester with the distraction of elections. Rodriguez and Akres said that many club requests aren’t approved until near the end of the semester because of election season. Spring elections also eliminate the disproportionate number of underclassmen in Senate. While freshmen are appreciated in Senate, when they run for positions within schools, ASUP feels that it’s difficult for them to command a certain level of authority among students who would need to come to them with problems.
Rachel Rippetoe is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at rippetoe18@up.edu or on Twitter @rachelrippetoe.
