I just sent my recommendations to the policy committee chair on the revisions t the bylaws of SA. If any of you care about student government, the short version is: Initiatives (bills introduced via petition of the student body) will require 50 Signatures instead of 20. Official motion making power will be officially limited to senators and org heads. (As opposed to unofficially only senators and frisky execs). Below are my recommendations.... https://docs.google/document/d/15KGSgaSZsJ-vYhAiQfXQ9WCX44WRyl7Qm5F6qJwYWT8/edit?usp=sharing NOTES: Article VI Section I Resignation... We saw the secretary and exec. assistant swap positions. The two week notice for resignations should stand. Vacancies caused by resignations should be publicly posted and made available to ALL students. Nominations should be accepted and reviewed in a formal format. The antics we saw this semester just wreak of abuse and and seems to teeter on the edge of a spoils system from the outside. Article VIII Section 2 subsection A: Initiatives Why has this been changed? This is more than a doubling of required signatures for the current 20. Has enrollment doubled? Who suggested this? Is the senate / exec board afraid of dealing with bills that are introduced by the students that elected them? Initiatives provide a valid recourse for students to introduce legislation for discussion and review when the senate may otherwise stone wall them. Is the argument that initiatives waste time? Does it take too much time to ask the question, and vote the bill down with 2/3 if the senate is truly against it? This just looks like the senate / execs cutting students out of the process. Article IX Section 2: Bills, Minutes, and all other governing / legal documents should be available to ALL students. Article IX Section 4: If academic commitments are to be listed, professional obligations should be listed along side. Article X Section 1: Seems to indicate that a Bill cannot introduce new policy. This is poorly worded. What was the intent? This should also be split into subsections limiting those with the power to make motions and whatever the second bit is try to portray. Additionally Org heads should be allowed to designate an delegate to make motions on their behalf. Often Official motions from orgs would be better suited coming from designated parliamentarians within the Org. Article X Section 6: Elections should be conducted via initiative. The senate should not have the authority to introduce candidates without the requisite (50) signatures. (this entire section seems misplaced) Article XIII Section 3: No. Why? The senate should have no reason to suspend governing documents. That would be similar to declaring martial law. Appendix C Article III Section 8 is a duplication of Appendix C Article I Section 5
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 13:34:22 +0000
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