Conference Discusses Final Issues for Proposed Constitution

Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor

   The Student Government Association Constitutional Conference met Monday, Feb. 23 and Wednesday, Feb. 25 to finish changes to the proposed constitution.

Campaign Expenditures

   At the last Constitutional Conference meeting held Feb. 19, the conference discussed leaving personal campaign expenditures at $75 and allowing the candidates to raise an additional $100 from organizations or businesses.   

Photo by Danielle Kloap

Final Glance - First-year early childhood education major and conference member Tiffany Reed looks over a copy of the proposed constitution at its meeting last Wednesday. The conference had to go over final changes before officially passing and signing the document.

   “You can spend $75 on making cards or flyers. Ink is $30. If you buy a black cartridge and a color cartridge, you have spent $75,” Forte said.

    Student Activities Board President Michael Reynolds II said, if the organization expenditure allowance was set at $100, students in organizations could have the organization to sponsor all of the $100. He said one-sided voting, such as voting solely because a person is in an organization, is a possibility.

   Zack Tucker, a sophomore political science major and chair for the Constitutional Conference, said the reason for having organizational funds is to help student run a proper campaign.

   “The students having the easiest time collecting that $100 are going to be students who are involved on campus. The students having a hard time are the students who are involved in only one organization or no organizations on campus,” Tucker said.

  Lauren Raynor, a senior double major in political science and psychology, said the personal expenditure allowance of $75 is reasonable, but inflation hurts the $75 mark. She said in the past election students only had the $75 and the students could get donations from other organizations.

   Tucker said students having financial distress receive refunds over $100.

   “Most folks that are hurting for money, they are getting financial aid to help them out,” Reynolds said.

   Reynolds said he wanted the personal campaign expenditure raised because of one-sided voting.

   “If I’m a Phi Lamb and I got the whole Phi Lamb to give me $100 to help, to sponsor me to do it, then I want you to vote for me because I’m a Phi Lamb,” Reynolds said.

   Raynor said if a student gets sponsored by an organization, then the voter may not like that certain organization and vote for someone else because they don’t like the organization.

   Tucker proposed raising the personal expenditure allowance to $100.

   “Had this been set for last year and I was running for vice president, I would’ve said 'just skip giving my own money, I’m just going to get these two or three organizations to raise for money for me.' You are going to have to put their names somewhere on your advertisements,” Reynolds said.

   “We could limit it to election polls,” Tucker said.

   Tucker said he decided to raise the personal expenditure allowance to $100, which gives student’s wanting to run for office a total of $200 for campaigning.

   Forte said too many loopholes still remained in the expenditure policy.

   “If I went out and spent my $200 and I needed more recognition, I could easily go to somebody and ask if they could put out fliers. They can go out and put fliers out and we come together and you ask ‘Did you put more fliers out?’ I could say somebody else did that,” Forte said.

   Tiffany Reed, a first-year early childhood education major, said there remains no way to get perfect results from everybody.  

   Raynor said with the new revised constitution, officials are going to have even more responsibility, honor and pride. Reynolds said the new grade point average requirements of 2.5 neglects to describe whether a person has responsibility or not.

   Tucker said the proposed constitution will be next year’s policy, which gives students a year to attend meetings. The current constitution plans to be ratified April 17 with elections held the following week under the old constitution.

   “So, in an imperfect world our president could be elected with a 2.0 this semester?” Forte asked.

   “Right now, yes,” Tucker said.

Demerits

Yvonne Hinshaw, a junior political science major, read the proposed demerit model, which comprises:

• One demerit for tardiness.
  

• One demerit for missing a committee meeting.
  

• One demerit for disrespect to another SGA member or university official.
  

• Two demerits for attending less than 20 minutes of a meeting.
  

• Two demerits for failing to assist with a project or fund raiser.
  

• Three demerits for an unexcused absence.

   “You could do better missing a meeting than coming in late,” Ron Forte, a sophomore psychology major, said.

   Raynor said the two demerits for attending less than 20 minutes remained designated for people who come in for roll call and then leave. Reynolds asked for a percentage of the meeting missed as opposed to a time limit.

   “Most meetings are about an hour. Twenty minutes is less than half, so we are giving you that play room to be in a meeting at least 20 minutes,” said Zack Tucker, chair of the Constitutional Conference.

   Tucker said each branch plans to designate a person to hand out demerits. The new model limits senators to seven demerits.

   Tucker asked other members how many projects or fund-raisers needed to be required by officials.

   “I think anything supported by the Student Activities Board or the Student Government Association, specifically such as the speakers, they should attend all of those and the excuse policy can still come into play there,” Raynor said.

   Eric Bell asked who would be designated to monitor how many times an official attended an event.

   “In the music department, they have these little signature cards and they give them to the official running the event. You have to go to the official that’s running the event to get the signature card signed. That person in charge of the event then turns them in to the professors,” Hinshaw said.

   Forte said anyone who runs for a position holds the responsibility to be visible on campus.

Petitions

   At its meeting on Wednesday, the conference read through the entire constitution to make sure every member agreed with the document.

   The only major change to other items discussed previously to be included in the new constitution was a section allowing students to petition the student government and amend the constitution by a referendum. In order to file a petition, a student or group of students must obtain 50 current student signatures before presenting it to the student government. If a referendum is presented, the referendum would have to be passed by a vote of the student body.

   Before the end of the meeting, the Conference suspended the rules and allowed Thomas to attend the meeting when he arrived. Thomas told the conference it was “doing a great job; keep it up.”

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