Proposed changes to USUSA Constitution

In response to the controversy following the outcome of last year’s USUSA election, this year’s executive leadership board came together to clarify rules within the USUSA Constitution. 

During public forums in the TSC Hub on Sept. 13 and 14, USUSA President Max Alder, Student Advocate Vice President Colin Hastings and Executive Vice President J.J. Watts presented proposed changes they hope to make to the constitution, hearing board bylaws and election bylaws.

They first proposed a change to the USUSA membership statement. The current definition states, “All students, currently in a degree or certificate-seeking program at Utah State University are members of the USUSA and shall be granted all rights, responsibilities and privileges as established by this Constitution.”

The definition would change under the newly proposed changes.

“We are proposing that it instead be, ‘All students at Utah State University who are currently registered for academic credit while being issued charges of tuition and student body fees,’” Alder said during the forum. 

Alder said some students who qualify include study abroad, technical education, employee and spouse, and employee dependent students. This new definition doesn’t include students who don’t pay tuition or fees, meaning concurrent enrollment students would not qualify as members.

“The reason why we say ‘charged’ and not ‘paid’ is because we don’t want to eliminate those that have tuition waivers or waived their fees but were still charged for it,” Alder said.

Under the new definition, USUSA members would have voting eligibility and access to all USUSA student events. It would not impact student access to university services like tutoring, advising, class registration or space usage, according to Alder.

“In the preamble of the constitution, it says, ‘The constitution for the students of Utah State University is hereby established for and by the students,’” Alder said. “Even if you are a type of student who is not a USUSA member, you are still represented by the student body officers within USUSA.”

Concerns surrounding live polling were also discussed. Alder said students would no longer have access to live polling during the election.

“No co-chairs, no students, nobody that is a USUSA officer will be able to see the live polling data,” Alder said. “It will only be a select few advisors, the student success leadership and the IT department.”

Proposed changes to the proxy voting section of the election bylaws were also presented.

“Our plan right now, if my memory serves, is that a candidate or a campaign team member is not allowed to touch or even view anybody’s ballot,” Alder said, “and there will be some more obvious descriptions as to what proxy voting is and is not.”

Proposed changes to administrative responsibilities and document organization were presented. 

To accommodate campuses like USU Eastern that have mainly two-year programs, incoming freshmen and transfers may now apply for appointed positions, but they would remain ineligible for elected roles until enrolled. 

“That way we don’t get in a situation where it’s like, ‘Oh, we just appointed you as the series director, but you just told us that you actually didn’t get in, or you didn’t get into your program, so we have to find somebody else,” Alder said. 

Hastings proposed replacing the two-person co-chair system with a five-officer structure, where responsibilities will be distributed among the student advocate, Logan campus vice president, public relations director, student body president and executive vice president. 

Watts proposed moving specific procedures and policies from the constitution into the bylaws to make it easier to update procedures without requiring a full constitutional amendment process. 

After the presentation, students asked questions about the role and function of the executive leadership boards, student fees and live polling. No one voiced concern over the proposed changes. 

“I do like that they’re clarifying a lot of the rules around who exactly is and isn’t a member of USU,” said student Sam Eborn after the forum. “I’m happy to see that the election coaches are expanding. I think that’s a positive change. I don’t know if it’s perfect exactly, but yeah.” 

Watts said if all goes well, a special election will be held two weeks after the changes are presented to the Logan and statewide executive councils, and changes could potentially take effect in mid-to-late October or early November. 

“From there, they would take effect immediately and be put into place before this next election cycle,” Watts said.