Constitution: ready or not?
by N.S. Garcia
The Metropolitan
After weeks of debate, Metro’s Student Government Assembly has
approved a new constitution to be ratified by the students.
In a 5-0-2 vote, the constitution, if approved by students, would restructure
the assembly to have three branches of government: executive, legislative
and judicial. The current SGA is an executive committee with a judicial
branch.
SGA Vice President of Communications Beth Ott and Vice President for
Academic Affairs Jessica Greiner did not attend the Oct. 21 meeting.
Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board Representatives Rebecca
Manhart and Todd Zink, Student Trustee Stephen Hay, Attorney General Will
Safford, and Chief Justice Tyler Murphy could not vote due to a policy
in the current constitution and bylaws, which dictates they could not.
Currently, there are 13 members of the executive committee, including
the president, seven vice presidents, an attorney general, two SACAB representatives,
a chief justice, and a student trustee.
SGA President Candice Gill said the new constitution is one tool to ensure
a student voice on campus for years to come.
Hay said after the reorganization that there would be a total of seven
more opportunities for the students to run for office. He said the current
SGA will not ask for additional funds to pay for the new officers.
“Basically, we’re spreading the work across seven new people,”
he said.
Under the new document, the executive committee would include a president,
vice president, the student trustee, SACAB representatives, speaker of
the senate, speaker pro tempore—a high ranking senator to act in
the absence of the speaker—and senate committee chairs. Six senate
committees are written into the new constitution.
The legislative branch would include 15 members, three of which must
be first year or sophomore students. Committees written into the new constitution
include: student welfare and diversity, academic affairs, information
technology, student outreach, student fees and finance, shared governance
and rules and ethics.
The judicial branch will be the student court, consisting of five justices.
The current student court is made up of five justices as well.
The 19-page document will replace the current seven-page constitution
if ratified by the students during the election week of Nov. 8. Students
will vote using MetroConnect, the college’s Web site portal.
Up to the final vote, the constitution was fiercely debated by Safford,
Vice President for Administration and Finance Dennis Bergquist and Vice
President for Student Fees Brian Glotzbach.
The draft that was finally approved was first presented at the Oct. 14
SGA meeting, in which the first round of arguments started.
Safford raised concerns about the senate. He said the document doesn’t
specify how the 15-member senate would be composed.
“There’s no guarantee here that equal representation is going
to take place,” he said.
He said there should be a process described in the constitution of how
senators will be elected and how they will represent the students, whether
by school or class.
Hay, who chaired the constitution committee, said they could not come
to an agreement on how representation will take place.
While most members agreed there should be some definition to the legislative
branch, each felt the constitution would not be the place to “set
in stone” a requirement.
While Gill held daily meetings to hammer out the final issues, no resolution
was agreed upon.
The document going to the students will not dictate how the senate will
be represented.
At the last meeting, Safford continued to argue that the constitution
was weak.
“We have a responsibility to put the right document out there,”
he said. “I don’t think this document is ready.”
Safford suggested “going back to the drawing board.”
However, Glotzbach said, “If we keep going back we will never get
anything done for the students.”
Safford countered, saying: “My biggest concern has been we’re
creating a document that says we have three bodies, but there is no orderly
form of representation.”
Glotzbach acknowledged possible flaws in the document but said, “Drastic
change is not always good; we have to start with a seed.”
The new constitution was based on a sketch written by former Student
Trustee Harris Singer.
Hay, who left prior to the debate, later said, “The unfortunate
part is that Will (Safford) didn’t even participate in the meetings.”
Hay said the distribution of senators is a concern, however, because
of how diverse and complex the campus is, the committee felt it best to
leave the options open.
“Numerous structures around the nation work for different campuses.
There are so many different options. I don’t think anybody could
know what’s going to work here,” Hay said.
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