Student Council's representative body passed a bill yesterday night to give the University Board of Elections the authority to determine the criteria for submitting constitutional amendment proposals that would alter Council's constitution.
The bill stemmed from conversations among Student Council, the Honor Committee, the University Judiciary Committee and the University Board of Elections, Council President John Nelson said, to allow the UBE to streamline the process by which individuals can submit petitions to propose amendments to the individual constitutions of those organizations. In turn, each of these organization's separate policies would be replaced with a single, overarching policy outlined by the UBE.
"Out of those conversations there was a general consensus, especially from things that have happened in the past, that it would make sense to be consistent and clarify that the University Board of Elections really is the body responsible ... for handling and overseeing Student Council elections and the elections of the other groups," Nelson said. "This is simply for petitions to propose an amendment to go on the ballot, but right now there are differences among the constitutions."
Currently, Article V, Section 1 of Council's constitution dictates that amendments can be proposed in three ways: by a written petition with the support of "5 percent of the full-time student body submitted to the Representative Body," a written petition of 25 students submitted to the Representative body and passed by a two-thirds vote, or by a three-fourths vote of the representative body. The Honor Committee, on the other hand, requires either the support of 10 percent of the entire student body or a two-thirds vote by the Committee in favor of the amendment. UJC, meanwhile, requires the "vote of two-thirds of the entire membership" to alter or amend its constitution. Both the Honor Committee and UJC have passed similar bills for the upcoming University-wide elections.
"The idea ... is simply to enable the University Board of Elections to set the requirements for both petitions and other standards of University elections," Nelson said. "I think it's consistent with our constitution in giving the authority over Student Council elections to the UBE. Hopefully it will clarify our procedures, as well as [those of] Honor and UJC."
Third-year College student Jooyong Kim does not think UBE should dictate how individuals can submit proposed amendments to the constitutions of these organizations.
"I think Student Council should make their own decisions about their own constitution," Kim said, adding that he has concerns about a third party imposing regulations on individual organizations. He noted, however, that these and similar referenda passed by the Honor Committee and UJC raise awareness of how students can submit proposals.
Students will be able to vote on the referendum during the University-wide elections Feb. 26.
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