An assembly of the Charter and Rules Committee (CRC) of the Student Government Association (SGA) brought to the table the idea of drafting a new constitution.
After much debate and discussion, the members that were present at the Jan. 26 meeting of what SGA CRC Chair Al Cordero called a constitutional convention unanimously voted to draft a new constitution for the SGA.
Cordero said, “The reason we scrapped the current constitution is because as a committee we felt the current document served no one, especially the students of NEIU.”
There has been no worry of any controversy surrounding a new constitution. As Senator Rick Garcia said, “There is no controversial past, because this is a new document, a new idea, and a new vision. Whatever happened in the past, it ends today. Today we’re moving on.”
There have been a number of issues with the current constitution voted into existence in 2003 under then-SGA President Lukas Dobrzynski. There is some scrutiny as to who has authority in what areas, a lack of checks and balances, and many clauses of the constitution which contradict one another.
Eron McCormick, SGA president, said “Some areas are not clear as who should do what.”
A new model for the SGA executives and leadership was approved (See Chart). The model was called the “Garcia model” named after Senator Rick Garcia who proposed it.
It adds a new position of treasurer who will serve as the chief financial officer, a position not currently under the present constitution. It gives the advisory positions of Student Trustee and Illinois Board of Higher Education Student Advisory Committee (IBHE-SAC) representative the ability to advise the entire SGA.
It is also set up the idea of checks and balances. Checks and balances are currently being discussed making sure not one person holds too much power, and this model is hoped to enable that to happen.
It calls for a judiciary committee separate from the SGA and its members. The model passed with the vote of all with one abstention. Garcia abstained due to the fact he proposed the model and felt because of that he should not vote on it.
The CRC is currently organizing research and suggestions for the draft of the new constitution. The CRC is looking into student government Constitutions from many different colleges for ideas. A few of these colleges are the University of Alabama, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Rockford Community College, Purdue University North Central, and University of Tennessee.
The debate on stipends rages on. Some of the SGA executives currently receive stipends for their work on the SGA, and the senators do not.
There are two major ideas around the issue. One is to abolish the SGA stipends altogether. The other is not to raise the total amount of money used in the stipends, but have all SGA members entitled to a stipend. President McCormick said that only SGA stipends will be affected, not those given to other organizations like WZRD and the Independent.
The draft of the new constitution’s tentative deadline is Feb. 19 pending a possible extension from the Student Election Commission.