Issue date: 11/15/05 Section: Campus News
The Carolinian,
The
It is rather unfortunate that there was a SGA Constitution
vote on campus this past week and almost none of the students knew about it.
Posted on UNCGenie between the dates of November 2 -
8, students were asked to vote for whether they approve of the freshly changed
constitution. Out of the near 16,000 students on campus only 138 of people voted, 114 pro-constitution, 14 against and 10 other.
E-mails or flyers were not sent asking students to vote, but there was an
information booth set up in the EUC by the Chairman of the Legislative
Committee, Matt Hill and the Chief of Staff, Kemp Allen to entice voters and
answer questions. The overall lack of advertising by the student government
gives the impression that SGA doesn't care about student approval.
No prompt was offered ahead of the poll, conveying information on what exactly
students were voting for. The link where the current Constitution is posted is:
http://sga.uncg.edu.
The question arises, what changed exactly?
Currently, the student government contains a unicameral legislature. This means
that both the House of Representatives and the Student Senate act as one body.
With the passing of the student's approval however, next semester both groups
will be split into becoming bicameral.
"The House of Representatives concerns the student organizations and the
Student Senate represents the concerns of the student body. Since they are
different in their interest of focus it is more logical for them to be
separated," reported Hill.
The voices of students who disapprove of the constitution can still be heard.
"Students may come to any of the SGA meetings which are held every Tuesday
at 7:30 pm in the EUC's
One of the biggest concerns that this change causes for Villanueva is that the
Student Senate will possibly drop drastically in numbers. There are currently
70 - 80 members in the unicameral legislature. Two out of three are
representatives of organizations and the remainder are
the Student Senate. Since you can't have a person being both a representative
and a senator, this will leave many seats open. If over 20% of the seats become
vacant, Dempsey must actively fill the seats.
"What many people don't realize is that the Student Senate strives to have
a large diversity. We really want a good sample from each aspect of
campus," said SGA President Daphne Villanueva.
This is a great opportunity for the many students out there who wish that they
could find a way to make their future resume shine.
"If a student would like to become a senator at large, all they need to do
is attend a Tuesday SGA meeting. After a brief interview I will choose to
appoint them the position or not." said Dempsey.
So the SGA absolutely does care about the opinions of students. As for the lack
of student votes Hill offered this bit of insight,
"When it comes to voting for any referendum change; city, state or school,
the voter turnout is always going to be low."
Article appeared on
the front page of the November 15, 2005 issue of The Carolinian.
This article available
online at: http://www.carolinianonline.com/media/paper301/news/2005/11/15/CampusNews/Student.Body.Votes.In.Favor.Of.Constitution-1056593.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.carolinianonline.com