With a referendum scheduled to appear on ballots the first week in March, members of the Student Association have begun to devise a timetable to ensure a plan to split the SA into separate graduate and undergraduate governments is timely.
Graduate Sen. Emily Cummins (CSAS), a co-sponsor of the legislation that urges the split, said she feels the bill easily will pass the SA Senate at next Tuesday’s meeting, after which it will be signed by SA President Carrie Potter.
“Everyone agrees we want to separate the SA,” Cummins said. “There’s no real bone of contention here. I expect it to pass through unanimously, and Potter has already pledged to me that she intends to sign the bill.”
Pending the passage of the referendum, a Senate ad hoc committee will be formed to draw up a new charter and constitution, which will be presented at the first Senate-elect meeting in May.
Undergraduate Sen. Jared Hosid (CSAS) said he believes that will be one of the most difficult periods in the split process.
“The report given to the Senate-elect will include a new constitution and a new charter and we’ll have to, at that point, work out the kinks of it,” Hosid said. “There will probably be a lot of bickering about it then. It’s going to get messy before it gets better, but it should be interesting.”
After approval of the report, the charter and constitution will go before the student body in the fall for its approval.
If the student body approves the plan next fall, it will be introduced to the University’s Board of Trustees, which must approve any revision to the SA charter. Cummins said the meeting is tentatively scheduled for January 2000, but members of the SA said they intend to keep the Board of Trustees updated.
Cummins said the split process will culminate with the meeting of the next Senate-elect in May 2000.
Regardless of student response, SA senators said they plan to further define the difference between the groups by separating the student group allocation pot into three different funds: a fund for undergraduate student groups, a fund for graduate student groups and a fund for mixed student groups.
Along with financial matters related to the split, members of the SA said other details need to be worked out. Among them are the reapportionment of the Senate, the possibility of two separate executive branches and the amount of interaction that will occur between the two student associations
Hosid said some questions remain unanswered because the SA wants to do what the students want.
“We’ve got to take this slow and make sure we do it correctly,” Hosid said. “We need to do what the students want us to do and if they don’t want this, then that’s it; that’s the end.”
