A Strong Constitution

That's me, the ASR advisor, pictured left, in a self-portrait, during a conference call with ASR members this summer. Students in town are supposed to join me on campus, while out-of-town senators call in, but even the locals phoned it in this week.

For the first time in 15 years ASR is conducting a major review of its constitution. It is time for a change, primarily because ASR will operate more as a traditional student government after this year -- taking over student activity fee disbursement responsibilities from the Student Finance Board in 2010. This will quell the erroneous notion that ASR has no power. In addition to continuing to address student concerns, the senators will have a much more direct impact on student life based on how funds are allocated. This responsibility probably never should have belonged to an ASR appointed committee anyways. President Emily Faber is leading the review with help from VP Chantal Van Esch and Malone Allen (senior class senator), Chris Compton (senior class senator), Tim DuVarney (sophomore class senator), Austin Ferrin (sophomore class senator), Ryan Kilpatrick (sophomore class senator), and Cole Wollak (junior class sneator).

The new document will need to be approved by a full student vote in the early fall so candidates can run under the new constitutional rules as outlined. Preliminarily, some changes discussed are electing first year student senators in mid-fall to give that class representation, holding elections earlier in the spring to ensure smoother transitions from year-to-year, and defining procedures for disbursing activity fee funds to students and organizations.

In weekly meetings for the remainder of the summer the committee is looking at the ASR mission, membership, elected positions, procedures, and more.

Editors note: The futuristic triangular device in the photo is a Cisco Ip 7936 conference phone: the pen is a Parker Steel "Jotter", medium point/black ink (and possibly the best pen ever!), Sparkletts water, and a laptop.