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The Senate shot down a rushed vote to amend the constitution and the structure of SGA last week. SGA President Carl Kasalek proposed a resolution to add a vice president to each class, thereby opening the door to make major structural changes to SGA in the future.
Kasalek’s proposed constitutional amendment had to have passed at last week’s meeting in order for any structural changes to be made this year. If the measure had passed, the student body would have voted on the change this past Tuesday, election packets would have listed class vice presidents this week and senate elections would not have taken place until next fall.
However, only seven senators out of the 22 needed (2/3 majority vote) were in favor of the amendment. Senators rejected the proposal due to the suddenness of the news and the larger implications it could have on SGA.
“There was a whole lot to sort through in a short amount of time,” freshman class senator, Katie Chang, said. “Enough concerns were raised over our roles changing that I thought it was wiser to wait.”
SGA secretary Elizabeth Isabella, who argued against the amendment on the floor, agreed.
“For me it was mainly a timing issue,” Isabella said. “I think it is a good idea, but more groundwork needs to be done before passing the resolution.”
Class representation has been a problem for some time, according to Kasalek and Michael Houston, SGA Advisor, who began discussion over senate changes at the beginning of this year.
“Class representation has not been working because classes are held by unit count,” Kasalek said.
Students, class-ranked by units, enter Pepperdine with many AP or transfer credits, and therefore are unable to vote for the class with which they most identify.
“Many schools across the nation have noticed this as a problem,” Kasalek said. “I believe there should be restructuring in order to make SGA most effective.”
Houston agreed.
“I honestly wonder how many students are actually represented by the senate,” Houston said.
Houston cited former president, Jason Palmer, who referred to SGA as “a broken -down car” after noticing that there had been no constitutional changes or revisions in the last 10 years.
Palmer took the first step in restructuring by removing Programming Board, the group responsible for school-wide events, from SGA, thereby shifting SGAs focus towards policy issues rather than event-planning.
Houston believes that step was a major success, pointing out that as a result, many policy-centered resolutions that were never followed up on in the past have been this year.
Kasalek wanted to continue the restructuring Palmer started.
“My concern is that various class senators put so much energy into class giveaways, and they need to focus more on important policy issues, making concrete changes on campus,” Kasalek said.
After reviewing other university’s various constitutions, General Judicial Director Dan Rath made the initial proposal of adding vice presidents to each class. In the future the president and vice president of each class would therefore be in charge of class events, while senators represented by divisions, residence halls or the Pepperdine community at large, would focus on policy changes.
“The goal is not to take power away from the classes,” Houston said.
“(But) Does it take seven people to make a sweatshirt?”
Addressing why the resolution was brought up so late in the semester, Houston said, “Spring Break snuck up on us.”
Among senators’ unaddressed concerns was that the planned restructuring would take event planning completely out of SGA, thereby “making it more of a business,” Kasalek said.
Houston assured, however, that “there will always be programming within SGA because it is the only group that can adequately represent classes,” he said. “Programming Board cannot represent classes.”
However Houston directed attention to SGAs primary goal.
“Our goal is to represent 100 percent of the students so that every voice is heard,” Houston said.
Though the measure did not pass, Houston hopes to pass ideas to next year’s E-board so that structural changes may be made in the future.
02-24-2005