As the 2006-2007 Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) enters the last few weeks of its term, members have proposed three changes to the College Body Constitution to go into effect next year aimed at strengthening the 2007-2008 assembly. The assembly officially recognizes the changes, President of the WSA Zach Kolodin ’07 said Monday, and it awaits approval by two-thirds of the voting turnout during the upcoming constitutional election. The changes address the timing of elections, the merging of two committees, and the mandate of the Executive Committee (EC).
The timing of the election of WSA representatives is one of the major changes. The current setup, in which 16 are elected during the fall election and four during the winter, would be revised to elect 10 in the fall and 10 in the winter. Of freshman positions on the assembly, the current system calls for nine elected in the fall election and none in the winter election. Changes would re-allot this to six and three, respectively.
Kolodin said that the readjustment would help allow first-year students to run for a position after having settled on campus.
“Those who hadn’t decided to be so involved in the beginning [could] now make that decision,” he said.
According to Kolodin, the election changes would also make the winter election a more prominent event and enable the WSA to accomplish more campus outreach mid-semester.
During the fall election, campus would elect six freshman class representatives and four at-large members. During the winter election, the student body would elect three freshman members, three at-large members, and four Student Budgetary Committee (SBC) members. The spring election would not change, maintaining 17 positions open for election. These include the president, vice president, and five class representatives from each the sophomore, junior, and senior classes.
Secondly, the WSA hopes to merge the Coordinating Committee (CC) and the Independent Projects Committee (IPC), its two smallest sub-divisions, into the Organization and External Affairs Committee (OEAC). Currently, the CC facilitates WSA elections, records minutes of general assembly meetings, and maintains communication between assembly members and the student body at large. Members include chair of the CC, assistant coordinator, and secretary of the WSA.
The IPC contains several subcommittees that pursue special initiatives, for example the Career Resource Center (CRC) Advisory Committee and the ITS Advisory Committee. The IPC is also responsible for maintaining communication with University Relations. Members include a chair and three general members.
With seven members, the OEAC would be one of the WSA’s largest sub-divisions. Its responsibilities would include internal organization, such as those that the CC currently oversees, and external communication similar to that which the IPC is currently responsible for with such groups as ITS and University Relations.
Last, formation of the EC would take place during the spring election prior to an assembly’s fall-spring term, rather than during the fall election at the assembly’s start-of-term. Kolodin said that this would bring the greatest change to the WSA.
“It looks for more continuity from one assembly to another,” Kolodin said of the third proposal.
The EC is composed of the chairperson of each WSA sub-committee. It is a unique committee in that it remains active over the summer between consecutive assemblies.
“These people are expected to fulfill [certain responsibilities] over the summer to the best of their abilities, especially in August and September,” Kolodin said.
However, because an interim EC’s term ends upon fall election of the succeeding EC, end-of-summer and start-of-term responsibilities are often fulfilled without commitment and consistency, most significantly initial allocations by the SBC and registration of new student groups by the Community Outreach Committee (COCo).
“They have the most clear-cut [summer] responsibilities,” said Vice President of the WSA Brittany Mitchell ’07 about the SBC and COCo. “A lot of the other committees’ responsibilities are more informal.”
Mitchell said that, whereas most committees must simply maintain communication with University administrators during the summer, the SBC and COCo must have determined initial allocations and registration, respectively, before the first WSA meeting in the fall.
Under the new proposal, the EC would be elected during the spring election and re-approved by the WSA in the fall, to continue its term until the following spring. This would enable EC members to maintain their various responsibilities during fall changeovers.
“It means we will be working for one month longer,” Kolodin said, emphasizing the greater activity that the EC would accomplish between August and September. “This will have a profound effect on our advocacy.”
The current EC has eight members, representing COCo, CC, IPC, SBC, the Educational Policy Committee (EPC), the Finance and Facilities Committee (FIFAC), and the Student Affairs Committee (SAC). The President of the WSA, the eight member, acts as chair of the EC. Although the number of WSA committees will decrease from seven to six if the CC and IPC merge into the OEAC, the EC’s membership would remain at eight, Kolodin said. The new committee would have two representatives on the EC, including the OEAC chairperson acting as vice chair of the EC and the OEAC vice chairperson acting as secretary of the EC.
The Spring 2007 election will take place in two phases. During April 17-22, students may vote on the proposed changes to the constitution and participate in an opinion poll regarding chalking on campus. During April 22-27, students may vote in the general elections to decide the 2007-2008 WSA president, vice president, and class representatives, as well as Senior Class Officers, who are independent of the WSA.
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