SGA hopes to boost student representation
by Clayton Woullard
The Metropolitan
Jason Chevarria / The Metropolitan
SGA members Beth Ott, Todd Zinck and Rebecca Manhart meet in the Tivoli’s
Senate Chambers during the Oct. 14 meeting. During that meeting members
discussed whether the new constitution was actually ready for implementation.
The SGA approved the constitution in its Oct. 21 meeting. The SGA election
commission, a group of four non-SGA members, is now in the process of
deciding when and how Metro students will vote on whether or not to approve
the new constitution.
Metro students could face another election before the end of the year
to vote on a document some hope will improve the way students are represented
on campus.
This document is the proposed constitution of the Metro Student Government
Assembly, which consists of 13 members whose job is to represent the Metro
student population of about 22,000 students.
With this new constitution, the SGA hopes to heal rifts within the group
and help it function better.
But what does that mean for students?
SGA Vice President for Communications Beth Ott said the group hopes this
new constitution will help the SGA operate more efficiently, which will
spread to the students by improving representation.
“Everything the SGA has done thus far has been for the SGA,”
Ott said. “However, I am hopeful that in the long run, the benefit
of having a stronger SGA will filter down to the students.”
The SGA Election Commission, which is composed of four students who are
not SGA members, will review the new constitution and then decide when
and how students will vote on whether or not to approve it.
The greatest change in the proposed constitution, which was approved
by the SGA in its Oct. 21 meeting, will be to alter the assembly’s
structure.
Currently, the SGA is made up of a president, seven vice presidents,
a student trustee, two Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board
representatives, an attorney general and a chief justice.
Under the proposed constitution, the SGA would be more representative
of the U.S. government with executive, legislative and judicial branches.
The executive branch would be made up of a president, vice president,
student trustee and two SACAB representatives. The legislative branch
would be made up of 15 senators, three of whom must be either freshmen
or sophomores. The judicial branch would be a new name for the student
court, which is already made up of five students who serve as justices.
Currently, each of the seven vice presidents oversee one area of the
college, such as academic affairs and student fees, but under the proposed
constitution, these areas will be dealt with through seven committees
made up of at least two senators each.
Student Trustee Stephen Hay, who chaired the constitution committee that
developed the proposed constitution, said this system increases representation
because it allows for more diversity of opinion and therefore more representation
of student concerns.
“I believe the best ideas come out of collaboration and brainstorming
and working as a group, by bringing many ideas to the table,” Hay
said.
SGA Attorney General William Safford, who was not able to vote on the
constitution because of SGA policy, challenged the proposed constitution
in past meetings and said he does not think students should vote in favor
of the document.
“It takes power away from students and puts it in the hands of
student government,” Safford said.
He said he thinks a constitution should limit a government and because
this new constitution would let the SGA decide how it’s composed,
it would not be meeting that goal. He also said the legislative branch
is not representative because everyone in the population votes on each
legislator, which does not work that way in the U.S. government, in which
legislators are elected by a certain part of the state population or a
certain state.
“You have 15 students elected by all the students,” he said.
“That’s what we have now. It’s not going to represent
students any better.”
Safford said the constitution should clearly outline how students are
represented and the new document does not.
SGA President Candace Gill said it’s important to remember that
this new constitution is fluid and it can be amended. She said it’s
best not to outline in this new document how exactly the SGA represents
students because that could change from year to year for each assembly.
A new SGA is elected by student vote every spring.
“The document’s not perfect,” Gill said. “Is
it 10 times better than the current document we’re working under?
You better believe it.”
Gill said it’s important to pass a new constitution by the end
of this semester because it would be unfair to the students running for
office in the spring to put a constitution up for vote at the same time.
Hay said it would be logistically difficult for students to vote for
an SGA of 13 members, and at the same time vote on a constitution that
would require more elected members.
Safford said there are ways to work harder on the logistics of the document
and still get it out to the students to vote on by February.
“There are a lot of ways to address implementation but we should
never sacrifice the essence of the constitution for the timeliness,”
he said. “It’s just not fair to the people we represent.”
If students ratify the constitution, Safford said he would do anything
to make sure it works because he considers his first priority is serving
the students.
Ott said the SGA is also working with Interim Associate VP of Student
Services and Dean of Student Life Yolanda Ortega-Ericksen on discussing
how the SGA can be more autonomous, which, along with the constitution,
should improve student representation by enhancing the lines of communication
from students to SGA and SGA to college administration.
Ortega-Ericksen, who has worked closely with SGA this year as an adviser,
said she appreciates SGA’s effort in re-writing the constitution,
but that they need to get to the more concrete philosophical issues of
what SGA’s purpose is.
“It doesn’t matter what structure you put in place because
that structure can be manipulated,” she said. “You have to
know the bottom line is to know that your job is to represent students
and to be able to be vigilant of the welfare of these students.”
The SGA decided in its Oct. 28 meeting to hold a three-hour mediation
Nov. 18 to deal with conflict that has arisen between SGA members during
this semester.
“There is currently conflict with this group, so I think if we
can stop and look at the issues we can move forward,” Gill said
in last week’s meeting.
Larry Lopez, a Metro professor of management and certified mediator,
is scheduled to lead the mediation.
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