The Student Assembly will vote Thursday night on the proposals made by the Student Assembly External Review Committee to replace the Assembly with a new "Undergraduate Council," reform committee chair Hosea Harvey '95 said.
The Assembly canceled its scheduled meeting last night because the Executive Committee could not meet this Sunday because many members -- including Assembly President Rukmini Sichitiu '95 and Assembly Vice President John Honovich '97 -- were out of town.
The Assembly executives met last night to decide how to vote on the proposals. "We're still getting things organized," said Honovich, who declined to comment on his opinion of the report.
Some of the reform committee's major recommendations include: having presidential and vice presidential candidates run on a ticket, creating seven new vice presidents -- appointed by the president -- to oversee committees, limiting membership to 50 students, having each class select eight representatives and having one-third of the membership be appointed.
Honovich said the Assembly executives wanted to divide the proposals into sections for debate. But the executives did not want to analyze the proposal line-by-line because of time constraints, Honovich said.
The proposals are divided into three sections: elections, representation and structure.
The Executive Committee decided to have the Assembly vote on the representation section and then divide the sections on structure and elections into two parts, Harvey said.
The divisions reflect how structure and elections both feature constitutional changes. One section to be voted on will focus on constitutional changes and one will focus on non-constitutional materials, Harvey said.
Harvey said "constitutional" points are anything that alter names or previously established structures in the Assembly, or proposals "changing fundamental ideas about what positions entail."
President Rukmini Sichitiu '95 said she thinks the recommendations will pass, with a "few compromises."
Harvey predicted that "almost every motion will pass with flying colors."
All changes approved by the Assembly will be immediately effective to the student government's structure, Harvey said. If the committee's recommendations pass, the Undergraduate Council will replace the Student Assembly.
The Assembly will debate on each of the five sections any formally proposed amendments to them, Harvey said. Harvey previously said he hoped the Assembly would vote on the proposal as a whole.
Assembly members will be able to propose amendments to the recommendations by noon Thursday so other members have a chance to consider them.
The Assembly will also vote on a bill about how to change its constitution, Harvey said. Currently, three-quarters of the current Assembly members must ratify constitutional changes.
The bill would require 75 percent of quorum, not total membership, approve changes.
