Lanier Henson, president of Georgia State’s Student Government Association (SGA), led a discussion regarding changes necessary to amend the organization’s constitution and bylaws on Jan. 24.
Henson said the constitution had not been amended since 2010 and the previous authors and editors made it very difficult to alter.
“All the changes [previous SGA members] made were purposely made really hard to fix. They wanted their changes to stay permanent,” he said.
SGA Advisor and Director of the Student*University Center Boyd Beckwith said adjusting and repairing the constitution is a slow process, but it is necessary to keep the SGA running at full capacity.
“In order to change the constitution, it has to go before the entire student body, so it will be included in the spring election,” he said.
Beckwith also said he is excited for the upcoming election as the SGA has been working towards doubling the turnout of voters this year.
However, he also said he is concerned the constitution does not yet adequately elaborate on the protocol of an election.
“Right now there is almost nothing in the constitution about how the elections are to be run,” he said.
Beckwith proposed a digital method of voting which entails the display of candidate information on the ballot.
“The ballot will be shorter and hopefully more people will actually fill out a quick ballot and instead of the path where it just has your name, it will show your name, your major and your platform,” he said. “There will be much more information provided to the people who are voting about why you should be elected over someone else.”
Henson said he and the officers of the SGA noticed the current constitution could yield the executive branch excessive power.
“The way it is written produces a potential for corruption among the executive staff,” he said.
Henson also said the voting protocol in the current constitution allows the president to take part in every step of the process which would lead to excessive leverage.
“The President and the EVP get to view legislation and say whether or not it goes to the Senate then vote on whether or not it passes. Then they have veto power over whether or not it passes,” he said.
Henson also said the SGA should amend the constitution so the executive board members need only take part in one phase of passing legislation.
“This way one person approves it, another group votes on it and the president can veto it, but none of those parties are involved in more than one part of the process,” he said.
SGA Executive Vice President (EVP) Sebastian Parra said it is important to identify the exact powers of each executive board member and distribute them appropriately.
“I want to specify that the president is in charge of the EVP, but the committees [for SGA actions] report to me,” he said.
Vice President of Student Services Teara Mayfield said the distribution of executive power stems from the president but he does not address all SGA matters.
“All committee related issues should go to the EVP while the President oversees the executive duties carried out by those committees,” she said.
Currently, members of the press cannot be denied access to any SGA meeting, according to the SGA constitution’s bill of rights.
Associate Chief Justice of the Student Judicial Board John Powell (SJB)said the bill of rights should grant exception to the SJB when reviewing confidential business records protected by the Family Educational and Privacy Act (FERPA).
“The Student Judicial Board is classified under the Student Government Association. There are some of our business records that cannot be public due to FERPA … We will have closed door meetings at times and those are for FERPA reasons,” he said.
Parra said he would like to see a two-thirds vote requirement when reviewing financial legislation.
“Money is a sensitive matter,” he said.
Parra also said the SGA should aim to build a constitution appealing to the average Georgia State student.
“A lot of schools require freshmen to live on campus. We choose not to because we want to accommodate those who cannot afford on-campus living,” he said.
In the same monetary vein, the committee also discussed the payment regulations of SGA members.
Henson said it can be difficult to discern which hours to log as worked, especially in the instance of SGA conferences.
Beckwith said the differentiation of paid and unpaid hours can be a daunting task for executive board members.
“Stipends are a touchy issue as the defining line between work and educational experience can be very thin,” he said.
Parra said he agrees it can be difficult to determine when he has worked his allotted hours but he is happy to serve his student body.
“Everything else is just extra work because you love your school,” he said.
During the five-hour meeting the committee edited through their entire constitution as well as most of the bylaws. The majority of the alterations served to rid the texts of redundancies and technical errors.
The proposed amendments were reviewed during the Jan. 29 General Senate Body Meeting.
