A committee charged with reforming the Student Assembly released its final report yesterday, calling for a new "Undergraduate Council" to replace the current Assembly.
The Student Assembly External Review Committee presented its 24-page report to the Assembly last night. The report calls for changes in the Assembly's representation, structure and election procedures to make student government more accountable, responsible and unified.
"We'd like to give some stability to the Undergraduate Council," said Class of 1995 Vice President Hosea Harvey, who chaired the committee. "We believe the Undergraduate Council represents an evolution, simply because it achieves the goals we set out for."
Some of the 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 about a third of the membership appointed.
"I think Hosea and his committee have done a fantastic job in resolving the issues and creating a structure [that is] fair," Assembly President Rukmini Sichitiu '95 said. She said she had a few minor problems with the proposals that she said she hopes to clear up in the upcoming debates in the Assembly.
Assembly President-elect Jim Rich '96 also said he supports the recommendations.
"I'd like to applaud the members of the [committee] for working for ridiculous hours and coming up with a plan that addresses the major problems," Rich said. "I think it does well to alleviate those problems"
But Assembly member Bill Kartalopoulos '97 said he has "significant problems with this report."
The committee "has basically exchanged one set of problems for another and, what's worse, has curtailed liberties along the way," Kartalopoulos said in an electronic-mail message.
Harvey said the Assembly will vote on the proposals within the next two weeks and hopefully implement them next fall.
Representation
In an attempt to make student government more representative of student interests, the committee proposed a radically different system of representation.
Fifty students will normally sit on the Undergraduate Council. The committee proposed that the freshman class elect 10 representatives, one from each cluster, for the current year's council. In student elections, each class would elect eight representatives to serve next year.
But under the recommendations, each student would vote for no more than four class representatives, in addition to the president and vice president. The elected vice president would be called the executive vice president.
The proposals call for extending the Spring-term campaign period from one week to 11 days and calls for the council to pay for 25 percent for their campaign expenses and restrict where and how candidates place campaign posters.
The committee suggests that College groups and individuals petition for the remaining 16 council seats. Students or groups would need to collect at least 125 signatures to apply for a seat.
Then, the council's Membership Committee would approve 16 of the candidates. Groups winning council seats would hold them for two years.
Those who are not appointed could re-petition, and if a candidate collected 500 signatures, they would automatically become a council member.
Structure
The president would appoint six vice presidents, who would each chair a committee. The general council would have to approve all appointments.
The president would also appoint a vice president who would chair the Committee on Student Organizations in consultation with Director of Student Activities Tim Moore. Currently, no link exists between student government and COSO, the body that determines financing for almost all campus student organization.
The elected executive vice president would be in charge of a committee that would approve candidates petitioning for seats, review the performance of council members, suggest the dismissal of negligent members and keep a database of council business.
The council's Executive Committee would be chaired by the president and made up of the executive vice president, secretary, treasurer and the seven other vice presidents.
Under the proposals, each general council member would only serve on one of the council's eight committees.
The committee also suggested the formation of steering committee to serve as an umbrella organization for all student government and for committees, excluding the Executive Committee, to draft and approve all proposals.
