Adam Compton, student body treasurer, and Lock Whiteside, student chief justice, asked Student Body President Will Quick to postpone the proceedings of the Constitutional Revision Task Force until the fall.
Both Compton and Whiteside said at least two of the elected student body officers cannot make a definite commitment to be at the meetings if they are held over the summer.
Whiteside said he was under the impression that the task force was going to deal with the part-time student issue brought up during the last election, in which Vice Chancellor Tom Stafford shut down the electronic voting site in response to part-time students being on the ballot.
The Constitutional Revision Task Force was created in response to the passing of a referendum by the student body allowing Student Government to change the wording of the constitution.
“I didn’t think it was the best time to talk about those changes when we wouldn’t be physically present to offer our opinions,” Whitesaid said.
Quick responded by saying he made the decision to continue with the formation and scheduling of the task force during the summer.
“There are plenty of competent people and students on campus who can look at the issue now,” Quick said. “Obviously the climax can’t come until the fall but there’s no reason not to do the groundwork.”
Stafford said he agreed with Quick’s decision.
“We’re not going to finalize anything over the summer,” Stafford said. “We can get a lot of work done, get a lot of good discussion and make a lot of progress and when everybody’s back in the fall we have people review it.”
If all goes to Quick’s plan, the task force will make a recommendation at the beginning of the fall and members will vote on the final points they want added to the constitution. The results will be sent to the Student Senate and, if passed, will put legislation into effect.
Chancellor James L. Oblinger will have to approve it if passed by the student body, which is the path Quick plans to take.
“I’m not trying to rush it by any means, but I personally would like to have a new constitution in place by the spring elections,” he said. “There are a lot of steps, there’s a lot that’s got to be done that can’t be done during the summer anyway.”
The task force has 13 voting members — eight students and five administrators — and one non-voting member, David Drooz from legal services, who will offer legal advice to ensure the constitution is as legally binding as possible.
Whiteside also objected to proceedings occurring during the summer and appearing on the fall ballot because first year students wouldn’t have the opportunity to voice their opinions about the changes because their elections aren’t until later in the fall.
“I really think that’s a bad idea because, number one, the first part of the semester students are concerned with…things other than Student Government,” he said, adding that it wouldn’t give enough time to educate students about the changes.
Whiteside recommended instead to educate students and organizations during the fall and place the referendum on the spring ballot, when he said voter turnout is higher.
Quick said the first meeting is planned to be the week of June 19, but could change if not compatible with most people.
“Obviously people will be on vacation on and off — students as well as administration,” he said.
Whiteside also voiced concerns regarding a proposal by Stafford that would allow only fulltime students with a 2.5 grade point average to run for leadership positions.
“He’s referring to a draft regulation that people on my staff have developed that would apply to leadership positions in all of our major student organizations,” Stafford said. “This draft regulation requires all the students who are in leadership positions in those organizations to be fulltime and have at least a 2.5 GPA.”
Stafford added that the requirements would not go in the student body constitution but would be a University regulation put in place by the administration. He said he wants the task force to look at and discuss it because the constitution needs to make sure it’s consistent with the language in that regulation.
Stafford also said his stance on the referendum has not changed.
“My stance was that the referendum that they put out there that was approved by the student vote is one that … I cannot approve because it would allow any student under any status to run under student office and to serve in the Student Senate as well,” he said. “I mean, I can run.”
He said if he were to go to the McKimmon Center, register as a lifelong student, sign up for a one-hour PE course and pay a fee, he would be eligible to run for student body president, according to the language in the referendum.
“I don’t think a lot of people understand all the different dimensions to this issue,” Stafford said. “My position is that fulltime students are the ones that should be running for our major student leadership positions on campus.”
Quick said the issue of part-time students is more a broader issue of voter and candidate eligibility — should students who don’t pay fees but are participating in co-ops, study abroad or are early college students not be allowed to vote?
Stafford said the task force needs to have completed their task before next year’s elections.
“I know that Lock [Whiteside] and some others prefer to do it in the spring and it doesn’t make any difference to me except that it needs to be done before we go through our next round of elections,” he said.