ASUSU cleans up constitution
Associated Students of Utah State University is currently in the process of hashing out changes to the ASUSU constitution.
“The current constitution is really outdated and obsolete. It’s no longer referred to because it’s irrelevant,” said Andy Haws, Academic vice president of ASUSU.
Haws said to the Executive Council that several of the articles and sections in the constitution should be deleted because they are no longer applicable to the council. Haws also said the council should be restructured into two bodies, which would limit the number of voting members of the council and would keep the council’s focus job-specific.
“This bill will essentially create Executive Council into two parts. The Executive Council would be divided into a legislative board and a programming board. [This] will help us be more effective and more efficient as a council,” Haws said.
One problem to this solution is that the athletics vice president position lies in both those bodies. Athletics does programming and activities for students, but is also involved heavily in several administrative committees as well.
“There will be some serious discussion of whether or not the athletic vice president is more of an administrative role or not. It is definitely part of the programming process but fits the role of a legislator,” ASUSU President Steve Palmer said.
Jennifer Putnam, ASUSU athletics vice president, said that if the constitutional cleanup bill is passed by both ASUSU and the student body, the position she is currently filling should be put on the legislative board.
“If you have people sitting in influential committees but they don’t necessarily have a vote, it is not effective representation,” Putnam said.
Science Senator David Hoyal agreed.
“[The athletics vice president’s] responsibility should be taken into account because it is the exception and needs to be taken into account for things to be fair,” Hoyal said.
Another issue concerning the revision of the current constitution was proposed by Residents Hall Student Association (RHSA) President Mike Monson. Monson asked ASUSU on behalf of RHSA to consider the possibility of adding a Residents Life Senator to Executive Council.
“Every [peer] institution that we’ve ever been compared to by administration has student housing representatives on their executive councils,” Monson said.
Monson said one of ASUSU’s goals for this academic school year was to bridge the “third floor gap.” He said ASUSU has repeatedly asked themselves how they can bridge the gap and said the key is effective representation.
Palmer said he didn’t foresee Monson’s recommendation as being a part of the new constitution.
“I do foresee creating a President’s Cabinet which would be appointed by the president to help the president fulfill his charter. [But RHSA] has a valid argument,” Palmer said.
On-campus housing makes up a large population of USU students and Palmer said ASUSU “needs to be sensitive to these needs one way or another.”
Palmer said he thinks the best alternative would be to create a President’s Cabinet and appoint someone from RHSA to serve on this council.
The constitutional cleanup bill will continue to be revised over the holidays, and ASUSU will vote on the issue Jan. 8 before taking the bill to the student body for a vote.