A much-maligned Hopkins institution will get a permanent makeover this year when the Student Council, in its current form, is replaced by a new Student Government Association (SGA) to be elected later this month.
The renaming is one of a number of dramatic changes being made to the Council under a new constitution, approved in a student referendum last weekend that saw just a trickle of votes - 187, or just 4 percent.
The SGA will be a governing body composed of distinct legislative, judicial and executive branches. Under the current constitution, Student Council does not have an official judiciary branch.
Current Executive President Scott Bierbryer said they decided to write a new constitution because, from his perspective, the current constitution has never been implemented correctly.
"I would be surprised if most people on Student Council were fully versed in the current constitution just because it is so confusing, the wording is so poor and parts of it actually conflict with each other," he said.
He thinks the new constitution has made the necessary changes for SGA to run more smoothly than the current Council does.
Having the student body vote on the referendum required that those trying to pass the constitution needed to receive hundreds of signatures, but only 187 students participated in the actual vote.
Only 39 votes were cast in opposition.
The six authors of the new constitution brought it before the Council in February in an attempt to receive their support.
In an effort to create a more unified governing body, the new constitution eliminates the class offices of secretary and treasurer.
Instead, all students will either run for either the position of class president or for one of six class senator positions.
Their individual roles in the SGA will be determined once they are in office.
The executive branch will undergo fewer changes - the new constitution just eliminates one of the two vice president positions.
The vote was conducted online over the weekend.
"We typically see a low turnout on these kinds of issues because it is not something where people can go out and vote for their friends," said Tyler Krus, chair of the committee on student elections (CSE).
Bierbryer expressed dissatisfaction with the low turnout but said that he was not surprised by it.
"It's obviously a disappointing turnout. But it's also expected. I can only expect students to get so excited about a new constitution for Student Council... I'm just not sure that there's really a concern for Student Council legislation and technicalities," Bierbryer said.
He also attributed the low turnout to the fact that the constitution was written by Council members.
"It was internal. That's why there wasn't a big commotion about it," he said.
The authors of the new constitution expressed a number of reasons for creating it.
Evan Lazerowitz, Sophomore senator for legislation, thinks that it will make it easier for students to run for the class councils.
He said that the named positions - such as senator for Legislation or COLA - were often unclear to students who wanted to be potential candidates
"People didn't really know what they were running for," he said. Since the new council eliminates these named positions, he thinks students will find it simpler and more appealing to run for a position.
Bierbryer agreed, saying that the current set-up for committees and council-members made it "confusing for students, administrators, and the Student Council."
"Starting with a new constitution that has the approval of Student Council allows us to do everything that we are mandated to do," he said.
"It means we're operating with a sense of internal governance. And that's actually proper - so we can address administration and say this is how we operate."
