Our view: Concern over elected position without charter

As of right now there is one position we will all be voting on next week that does not have a charter: USUSA Student Alumni Vice President. While the position of SAA vice president does exist, it has never been an elected position and has never been a part of the USUSA Executive Council.

You may remember if you were here last year that the EC voted to add the position and held a special election of the student body to ratify it. One of the conditions of adding the position was that there would be a charter made for it at least by the time elections rolled around this year.

They are supposed to approve the charter in their next EC meeting on Tuesday. This will at least let those voters who want to be educated on the position do so. However, those running for the position still do not know exactly what their duties will be. Yes, they have a good idea, but what if the charter makes them mop the TSC every Tuesday night? Yes, it’s a bad example, but the fact is that they could have a duty in their position that they were not anticipating when they ran and, if elected, would not take seriously as a result.

We are not necessarily questioning the position here or its effectiveness. However, the fact that students are deciding who to vote on without knowing exactly what they will be doing is an issue to us. Additionally, the fact that students have committed to being in a position without ever officially seeing what will be expected of them is a concern. It is a concern that two organizations, USUSA EC and the SAA, will be linked by this position and we do not have any official legislation on how exactly that will happen.

The legislation last year does state some of the purposes for the position and some outlines for it, but they are vague as of right now. The current position of SAA VP does have a list of responsibilities, but they are not specific to how they relate to USUSA EC.

We are at least grateful that the position will have a charter by Tuesday of next week and we hope that is not too late for students to make an educated decision on the position.