For almost five years the constitution has been a veritable stumbling block to the Student Council, doing more damage than help.
Even the president of Student Council, senior Scott Bierbryer, admitted that the Constitution is ineffective.
"We don't really follow it very well," he said.
?"There was a tradition of not following it among previous classes and there were some parts that we couldn't follow even if we wanted to," Bierbryer added.
Last year the executive board toyed with the idea of fixing the constitution, but there were no results.
Finally, over Intersession, sophomore Evan Lazerowitz, junior Kate Jacob, senior Zachary Moor, freshman Daniel Teran, junior Austin Nelson and Bierbryer decided that it was time for StuCo to make a change.
The six student council members drafted a new constitution suggesting several significant changes to student council, even changing the name from student council to Student Government Association (SGA).
"It's probably less high-school-ish," Lazerowitz said.
If the constitution is adopted and implemented, these students hope that the newly christened Student Government Association (SGA) will be much more streamlined and organized.
Among the many changes, the biggest are those regarding the election of officials.
Currently, each class elects a president, vice president, secretary and four senators to specific committees. Under the proposed constitution, however, students would only elect a president and six senators.
The senators would not be elected to specific committees but would instead work with the president to choose committees after the election.
"I don't feel like electing to a committee is beneficial," Lazerowitz said.
"If you don't get into a committee one semester, you can get into it second semester. People will be able to do more, and more of what they like."
In addition, the positions of vice president and secretary would be eliminated.
"I don't feel that it's 100 percent necessary to have a vice president," Lazerowitz said, noting that the role of vice president was largely cosmetic.
"We're not the United States government. It's not like if the president left for the weekend anyone's going to die. If we were to have a vice president it might be easier to have them appointed once they've been elected."
Furthermore, he noted, under the current system, disagreement between the president and vice president often will lead to a deadlock. With only one leader per class, the new constitution could lead to a more united student council.
Other major changes include changing the committee structure and creating a judiciary.
For the former, the legislation, authorization, finance and COLA committees will be replaced with a plethora of new groups, including academic affairs, student rights and interests, campus affairs, housing and dining, student group affairs and finance.
The creation of a judiciary will entail the selection of five unbiased members who would mediate disputes.
"It will probably rarely be used, but we need it," Lazerowitz said, "especially during the election period and when the constitution is discussed. They'll solve major conflicts of interest."
Even though the proposed constitution dominated the weekly meeting, President Bierbryer made it clear that it was still very much in the development stage.
"This is just to see what everyone's thoughts are and if we should even go ahead with it," he cautioned the council.
"For all intents and purposes it's the same as a group of students trying to pass this, but we wanted to go ahead with the student council's approval."
For the vast majority of student council members, last night was their first exposure to the newly drafted constitution.
"It's obviously still in the early stages. People are still looking at it and formulating their own opinions," said Chethan Mallela, a senator for the junior class.?
"I really don't have a strong opinion for or against it at this point," he said. "Our current constitution is definitely vague, so there have to be some things that can be improved. I just really don't know what those things are yet."
In order to be passed, the constitution will need to receive signatures from 15 percent of the student body (approximately 700 students) and will need to be approved in a student referendum.
The rules for a student referendum have yet to be written, but it has been suggested that it will take place online like class elections.
Finally, should the constitution pass the referendum, bylaws will be written and the constitution would become official.
Next week the student council will be meeting to discuss the major changes that this constitution would bring about in greater detail.
Additional reporting by Katlyn Torgersen.
