Students can vote to approve or reject the SGA constitution draft until tomorrow at 5 p.m.
SGA needs at least 15 percent of the student body to vote on the constitution proposed and half of the 15 percent to pass the proposition. To vote, students can log onto OrgSync here and cast their vote with the Senior King and Queen ballot.
SGA members have been working on the project since the beginning of the semester. Although the revision does not have many structural changes, the language was reworked to make the constitution easy to read and follow.
The primary reason for the constitution change was to more clearly define the Senate membership qualifications and senator removal process, said Edgars Boitmanis, SGA Vice President.
“We had a kind of crisis two years ago because we didn’t have a clear line of succession,” Boitmanis said.
To read more about the crisis click here.
The biggest change in the proposed draft is the GPA requirement for Student Government officials. The proposed draft requires all high officers, the President of SGA, the Vice President of SGA, and the Vice President of Student Activities, to have a GPA of 3.25 for undergraduate students, 2.5 for graduate students and 2.0 for law students.
It also requires cabinet officers and senators to have a 3.0 GPA for undergraduates, a 2.5 for graduates and a 2.0 for law students. This is a .5 raise from the current requirements.
After creating a constitutional committee two years ago, Senate officials decided that the core of the constitution’s structure was flawed and needed a complete rewrite. They consulted the American Student Government Association and, after a constitutional convention, drafted a new constitution.
The proposed draft of the constitution passed in Senate three weeks ago.
Senate then gathered 135 signatures from the student body, which allows them to put the constitution draft up for a vote of the student population. If the vote passes, the new constitution will be installed, and Senate will move on to bylaw revisions.
Copies of the draft can be found here, and the current constitution can be found here.
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