By Farris Willingham, Senior Staff Writer
Student Government Association officials are attempting to mend the bond between the group and law students.
Wording in SGA’s bylaws affected the amount of funding granted to Student Bar Association this year, resulting in about a $20,000 cut from the law group’s budget. Senators then failed a bill Nov. 13 that would have re-established the funding process.
Sen. Edgars Boitmanis (president pro tempore) authored a bill Nov. 15, which would change the law association’s allocation process. The association would receive 90 percent of its contribution to Student Senate and 50 percent of law students’ contribution to the other branches of SGA, Boitmanis said. If approved, the bill would affect next year’s budgeting, he said.
Student government and law officials were set to meet this week about the proposed allocation process.
The law association’s budget cut stemmed from wording in SGA’s bylaws, which read that the association would receive 90 percent of its contribution to Student Senate—a branch of SGA, said Dr. Rick Hall, vice president for student affairs.
The 2007-08 student government was known as OCU Student Senate, Hall said. Its members hosted a constitutional convention where they rewrote their governing document. They failed to reflect changes in the bylaws, because it still reads “Student Senate” instead of “Student Government Association,” he said.
Hall, who was part of the SGA budget process this year, required the group’s members to interpret their bylaws verbatim. Previous committees applied the formula to SGA instead of Student Senate, Hall said.
“They did it the way it used to be on the whole budget instead of just on the Senate budget, which is not their prerogative,” he said. “This means ‘Big Brother’ is taking over the SGA’s rules and regulations and saying, ‘you might have made that rule, but that’s not what you really meant.’
“It’s not the university’s place, in my opinion, to tell the students what they meant in their governing documents.”
The pressure to fix the problem is back where it should be, Hall said.
“If SGA members want to redistribute their resources, they have to adjust their bylaws appropriately,” he said.
Student Bar Association is a unique campus organization because it made a pact with student government several years ago to receive a portion of its budget, Hall said.
They should receive about 20 percent of SGA’s budget, depending on enrollment, which is then allocated to the law school’s 68 organizations, he said.
Law association members wanted to be part of SGA because of the available opportunities and benefits, Hall said.
“They want to be able to run for student body president,” he said. “They want to be under the jurisdiction of the judicial branch.
“Since the law school is a part of the campus, they did not want to divorce themselves from being engaged in campus events.”
Zeb Judd, third-year law and Student Bar Association president, said he does not want to separate from SGA.
“I think there needs to be some kind of integration,” he said. “Ultimately, I’m going to go with the law school’s majority sentiment.
“If they seek to sever ties, as their representative, that would be the course of action that I’d take.”
SGA leaders have a chance to be accountable for the organization’s mistakes, Hall said.
“The university is not going to override the documents that you all voted on because that then makes mockery of student government,” he said.
The failed amendment
An issue with the amendment proposed Nov. 13 was that it was not discussed, said Robin Ladd, Student Government Association president. She and other SGA members learned about the bill following its submission.
“The reason it failed was that SGA wanted a negotiation,” she said. “This was not a rejection of law students. We wanted to reach something that was equitable for both of us.”
Another issue was how much the Student Bar Association contributes to SGA events, Ladd said.
“There are a lot of services that SGA offers that the majority of undergraduates fund, but a lot of law students don’t really have to pay into as much,” she said.
Many undergraduate students fund events that law students, who contributed $5,000, also access, Ladd said.
“That’s not fair to undergraduate students who have to pay full access fees,” she said.
Jarin Giesler, third-year law, defines the issue as a disconnect between undergraduate students and the law school.
“It seems like there’s not enough communication,” he said.
Student senators care about the issues facing law students, Giesler said.
“It’s not that they have a grudge against us,” he said. “The two schools don’t know enough about each other and, at the end of the day, we’re fighting for the same team.”
There has to be a compromise, Giesler said.
“I think that everybody at the law school has full intentions of getting this solved and keeping everyone happy,” he said. “We need to find solution. I think that that’s our main goal.”
Although the university’s board of trustees approved a measure last month to move the law school downtown, Giesler said he doesn’t want the law school to separate from SGA.
“Once we take a minute and think of it logically, everybody understands that there’s really no way for us to leave because it’s OCU,” he said. “You can’t just completely remove yourself unless you absolutely have to.”
Student Senate’s two law representatives resigned after the group’s Nov. 13 meeting.
Despite this, they were part of the compromise and given the bill to present to law officials, Ladd said.
“We hope our solution will be taken into careful consideration, as we feel that it’s something that could help really ease the pain,” she said. “SGA’s job is to be the voice of all students regardless of class, gender, sexual orientation, year, hair color, etc.”
For more information on the impact of SBA’s budget cuts, click here.
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