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Several Student Association members have rewritten the organization’s constitution to improve its representation of the student body. 

SA will vote on the proposed constitution during its Monday night meeting, said SA Parliamentarian Joshua Shub-Seltzer. If approved, the organization will then hold a referendum election, which would allow the entire student body to vote on the new constitution.

Many of the new amendments in the constitution change SA’s election procedures. One proposed change to the constitution would add a second school-wide election in the fall for assembly members, Shub-Seltzer said. Currently, SA only holds one election in the spring for students to vote for president, vice president, comptroller and representatives from Syracuse University’s schools and colleges.

“These documents dictate the way that we function, the way that things can be done, and all the processes and procedures we do,” Shub-Seltzer said. “Small shifts in language can have a really big impact on the way our organization functions.”

Shub-Seltzer and several other SA members formed the Organizational Review Committee last fall to update the constitution, which he said is almost decades old. After spending a year working on small changes to the document, Shub-Seltzer realized it would need a complete overhaul. 

“I spent my first year really trying to tweak things, shift what is written to what we do in practice,” Shub-Seltzer said “The student body and the  environment has changed immensely (since it was written), and I thought it was time we did a deeper look into what is the purpose of SA and how the rules can reflect that.” 

There are often several assembly seats left vacant after spring elections. SA members typically vote on student representatives to fill those positions at the start of a legislative session. Adding a second election could improve student representation in SA and involvement in elections, he said. 

“This new constitution really strengthens that everyone should be elected popularly by the student body,” Shub-Seltzer said.

The new constitution will also allow different student groups on campus to petition for a seat on SA, Shub-Seltzer said. Currently there are only seats for SU’s schools and colleges, but the change would give groups of students, such as SU athletes or those who utilize the Disability Cultural Center, the chance to have a say in SA, he said. 

David Bruen, speaker of the assembly of SA, worked with Shub-Seltzer to propose the Campaign Finance Reform Act, which will provide approved SA campaigns access to a shared pool of funds. Each set of candidates will be restricted to spending $200 on their campaign, and SA will return extra money to its budget, said Bruen, who previously served as SA’s board of elections chair. 

“Serving as the board of elections chair, I got to see through the election how a lot of our election codes were obsolete, not just in the bylaws, which we could change in a meeting, but in the constitution,” Bruen said. “This led me to create public financing of campaigns so that campaigns can be bigger and more accessible.”

Bruen said that the new constitution will also improve the structure of SA and allow for a better understanding of how the organization operates.  

“Our hope is since our SA constitution is redrafted every few years, that this will last longer,” Bruen said. “In many ways this is a great time to do this. It’s an adaptation to what the student body needs and what it may need in the future.” 

SA Chief of Staff Kailee Vick also worked with Shub-Seltzer and Bruen on the proposed constitution. She hopes the constitution will give more students the chance to participate in SA and have more of a say in how SU’s campus operates. 

“What I’d love to see is engagement go up and for students being able to see SA in their daily lives,” Vick said. “I’d love to see students and future leaders be able to work together so that  students know who SA is and that we’re their first point of contact if they need anything.”

Published on March 7, 2021 at 10:10 pm