After the Associated Students of Madison’s Constitutional Committee approved its final draft of the constitution Sunday night, committee chair Jeff Wright said the Student Council must approve the final draft twice at a two-thirds majority vote before it can be presented to the student body in the February special elections.
Wright said SC will also call a special meeting next week to either approve it for the second time or continue discussions from this week if it is not approved at Wednesday’s meeting.
“I think it’s been quite difficult for addressing the concerns of every stakeholder in this process,” Wright said. “Students and staff and other members of the university community have different interests which imply different changes to the constitution, so it’s been hard trying to balance all of these concerns. I think we have a very good proposed structure.”
SC has yet to approve the February special elections. If the final draft is approved this week, the Constitutional Committee would then submit language concerning the special elections at next week’s meeting.
Special Election Chair Katherine Tondrowski would be required to sign off on the special elections language pending the approval of SC.
Wright said the most significant change from the second to the final draft was the clarification of the financial code for segregated fees, which would regulate the processes behind the segregated fee application and approval.
Student Services Finance Committee Chair Kurt Gosselin said while the financial code was included in the second draft, it was put in “hastily.” After further review, the committee decided it was best to transfer it to the segregated fees bylaw section, he added.
“We pulled the hard and fast timelines out of the constitution because we realized the constitution is not the place to be putting (them),” Gosselin said. “It was making the language much tighter, and also moving things that aren’t necessarily constitutional from the constitution. This is the most appropriate way to go.”
Gosselin added he is “philosophically” opposed to putting constraining deadlines into a document that is not meant for change.
Wright said having the financial code in the bylaws would make them more flexible because that would have led to difficulties if Student Council wants to change it down the road.
Wright added the final draft would include minor changes to shared governance appointments. He said while the second draft outlined a committee comprised of mainly senators who would approve the appointments, the final draft calls for more members from shared governance to sit on the committee.
“The ability of appointees on university committees to weigh in on who should be selected any given year is extremely important to the process,” Wright said.
Wright added the committee is concerned with the Student Council becoming too involved with the final draft at Wednesday’s meeting.
“One thing we are a little worried about is the possibility of getting stuck in debates of amendments to the constitution,” Wright said. “And knowing how this group talks, we could get stuck in a debate fairly easily.”
