Student Bar Association senators amended the body’s constitution to transfer the duties of the executive vice president to a new speaker of the senate role Wednesday.
The constitutional amendment comes after senators passed an amendment to the body’s bylaws to create the speaker of the senate position at a meeting earlier this month, but acknowledged at the time that it was unconstitutional unless an amendment to the SBA’s constitution was also passed. GW Law students will need to ratify the amendment in a referendum, which requires a three-fourths majority, held next fall, to formally introduce the new role, which would go into effect in fall 2027 after a pilot run next spring.
Senators said the amendment — which shifts the executive vice president’s role from presiding over the legislative process to assisting the president with executive duties — was necessary to reduce the executive vice president’s workload, as they are currently responsible for both presiding over the body and supporting the president. Under the passed amendment, the speaker of the senate will be an elected senator voted in by other SBA senators, and will serve in the role for the duration of the academic year.
SBA Sen. Callie Stevens, a co-sponsor of the amendment to the constitution to create the speaker role, as well as last week’s amendment to the bylaws, said the heavy workload for both the president and the executive vice president necessitated creating a speaker of the senate, since she said it would help to alleviate some of the workload for both roles.
“That way, then the president would have more support in their role, so it’s not quite so big of a job, hopefully, and also allow them to be more consistent in promoting policy and being able to advocate for the student body, especially to the administration,” Stevens said.
SBA Senators also passed a second amendment to the body’s constitution, which included several changes to the document’s language to clarify the rules and processes.
Sen. Thaddaeus Canuel, a co-sponsor of the amendment to change the language, said he sought to make the constitution more understandable and straightforward by more clearly outlining how various processes work, like how the body can fill senate vacancies. He said some language in the constitution, like the portions of the document outlining the different classes of senators, was previously unclear and confusing.
Canuel said the amendment lowers the bar for impeachment by adding the words “misfeasance” and “nonfeasance” to what had said that only “malfeasance” was necessary for removal from office. He also said it replaces gendered pronouns in the constitution to make the document more gender-neutral and eliminates the question of whether anyone who is nonbinary would be allowed to run.
Senators also voted unanimously to approve the Criminal Law Brief Charter Act, which establishes a student organization to create an online publication for students interested in writing about criminal law.
Jivan Ramesh, a representative from the organization, said the brief fills a gap in existing GW Law publications, as there were no journals or writing organizations focused on criminal law.
“So this would be to help support all the many GW students who are very passionate about criminal law and would like to do some writing on that,” Ramesh said.
Executive Vice President Quinn Biever swore in his successor, Sen. Thaddaeus Canuel, as well as the SBA’s next president, Juliana Fernandez, during the SBA’s last meeting of the 2025-26 session.
After he was sworn in, Canuel swore in several newly elected senators and said he would swear in the remaining senators who were unable to attend the SBA’s first session in the fall, though the date of the next session has not been announced.
