ASOC Constitutional Amendments

This Amendment is changing the specifics of the GA meeting times and time lines for resolutions.  The purpose of these changes is to help GA to run efficiently and gain student support. These changes were deemed necessary to the vitality of the GA after input from past GA co-chairs and Administrators. The decrease in meetings for the GA is to help give the GA co-chairs much more flexibility with GA meetings. All changes are noted in bold.

 

Original

Article V

  Section 1.  The General Assembly

D) The General Assembly shall meet at least ten times per semester.

 

F) The General Assembly shall be self-governed as follows:

iii) Resolutions:

c) The vote on a Resolution must occur within two academic weeks of it being presented to the General Assembly.

d) All Resolutions which are brought to meetings will remain open for debate for at least one week before being voted on.

 

Proposed Change

Section 1.  The General Assembly

D) The General Assembly shall meet at least five times per semester.

 

F) The General Assembly shall be self-governed as follows:

iii) Resolutions:

c) The vote on a Resolution must occur within two GA Meetings of it being presented to the General Assembly.

d) All Resolutions which are brought to meetings will remain open for debate for at least one meeting before being voted on.

 

Argument FOR this Amendment:

After multiple GA sessions in which student participation was dismal it became clear that the GA needed to me modified. It was a the general consensus after a meeting with administrators, current and former GA Co-chairs, and members of Senate that reducing the amount of meeting per semester would help in making the GA more effective. This reduction in meeting times would allow Co-Chairs to have a more time to plan a GA in which students would want to participate. This would also eliminate filler GAs which have rarely been productive.

 

Argument AGAINST this Amendment:

This amendment addresses the concern that low attendance can be attributed to excessive meetings. Meetings have been deemed excessive because there are not “hot” topics that draw large crowds (i.e. President Prager resigning, ResLife, etc.) featured at every meeting. However, simply because the GA does not always have “hot” topics of discussion does not mean that there should be fewer meetings. The General Assembly is meant to be an open forum for students to voice their concerns. Although these “hot” topics are certainly important to the General Assembly, they can sometimes overshadow other issues that students may bring up. If the number of required meetings is reduced, students will not have a chance to voice their concerns beyond only the most controversial issues. Basically, this amendment lowers the bar; it lowers expectations. Instead of cutting the number of meetings, we need to work together to improve attendance by advertising more and not by cutting the required number of meetings. The General Assembly can still function well and serve its purpose by other means.

 

 

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Amendment 12

This Amendment seeks to change the vacancy procedure in the Constitution if there are fewer than 10 weeks remaining in a Senator's term of office. 

 

Original

 Article VII

Section 3.  Vacancies

A)    General Procedure

iii)     Senators

a)      In the event of a vacancy in the office of a Senator, if there are fewer than 10 weeks remaining in the Senator’s term, the President shall appoint an individual for the unexpired term of office with the majority confirmation of the Senate.  The President shall not vote in the Senate confirmation vote.

1)      Applications shall be solicited for a period of at least one week.

2)      The President shall inform Senate of their nomination at least three days prior to the confirmation meeting.

 

Proposed Change

 Article VII

Section 3.  Vacancies

A)    General Procedure

iii)     Senators

a)      In the event of a vacancy in the office of a Senator, if there are fewer than ten weeks remaining in the Senator’s term, the President shall appoint an individual for the unexpired term of office subject to the approval of Senate. Approval shall be given by a simple majority vote.

 

Argument FOR this Amendment:

As the chair of the Senate, and leader of ASOC more broadly, it is crucial the President have discretionary authority over appointments when fewer than ten weeks remain in a given term. This power will ensure Senate operations continue without undue interruptions caused by a lengthy interview process.  From a logistical vantage, the time required to publicize, interview, and finally select a member from our community would leave little time for such an individual to actually serve their term.  Moreover, this responsibility is already recognized by our bylaws, which have effectively governed Senate operations without mishap. Therefore, we feel strongly these bylaws should be adopted as constitutional amendments, given proven success and long-term viability in selecting officers near the end of a year.

 

Argument Against the Argument:

The proposed amendment for the change in method of choosing replacement senators for those who have resigned is unnecessary. This Change would only hinder the democratic processes upon which ASOC is based. There is nothing wrong with the current article in the constitution. We should not fix what is not broken. A change would only eliminate any chance of diversifying the composure of opinions on senate. The original writers had knowledge of how senate could be manipulated in times of resignation so thus they put this process in there as a precaution to learn from the sins of the past ASOCs.

 

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