Around three weeks ago, on Oct. 17, the Senate passed an amendment to their organization’s constitution. Although the Judicial Committee plans to begin amending the constitution Nov. 6 officially, this potential amendment serves as a prelude for the changes to come. This proposed change is part of an ongoing operation by the Senate to fix their constitution.
There were around 40 changes to the Senate’s constitution last year. In general, the constitution should be changed sparingly; however, these changes needed to be done. The changes were mainly about reorganizing the constitution, ensuring that the constitution wasn’t contradicting itself and closing loopholes.
“The constitution is an important document that governs SGU, and so it should be as clear, as readable and as precise and concise as possible,” said Senate faculty advisor Frank Orlando.
Additional changes included the clarification of the capabilities and responsibilities of the Student Government Union along with clarification on what clubs needed to do to remain in good standing. The Senate Committees, the leadership conference and the Saint Leo Serves (formerly Make a Difference Day) event were all subjects that these amendments included.
Anything that is not in the SGU’s constitution cannot be enforced, so these amendments gave the executive board the ability to enforce policies that they originally weren’t able to enforce.
The senators and advisors all had a positive view on last year’s changes.
“Between last year and this year, we’ve been working really diligently to try and get [the constitution]fixed. I think [these changes]portray the Senators very well, but on the same note, I feel like there’s always work that could be done and we could always try to improve and… get something more stable for the student body because consistent change isn’t always the best thing for growth,” said Judicial Committee head Rose Foley.
The Judicial Committee hopes to have all the proposed amendments drafted within this year so that they can present them to the rest of the Senate in the spring semester. Some of the proposed changes in November are that the vice president of Communications Management (VPCM) will constitutionally be the person who leads the President’s Council. Saint Leo’s mascot, Fritz the Lion, will be officially owned by SGU. Also, if you are in the SGU executive board, you will officially not be able to represent any club in a President’s Council meeting. A lot of these amendments are about things that SGU already does; they just haven’t been written in the constitution yet.
The senators are hopeful that the constitution will be completely fixed this year.
“With how hard we have worked on [the constitution]previously, I feel like it’s finally coming together and it’s finally a functioning piece of work. I’m really glad that the Standing Rules and Judicial Committee last year…started a lot of change. And I think we’re just here to finish that change as this year’s Senators,” said Foley.
The Senate advisors hope that the changes to the constitution will be final and that it won’t need to be changed for a long time.
“I hope that at the end of this year or in the next few months we have [the constitution]in a place where next year we don’t have to go back and redo it,” said Orlando
