Graduate Student Senate further discussed the process of changing how amendments are added to its constitution during their regular Tuesday meeting.
The change that would be made involves removing the Board of Trustees from the amendment process. Instead, GSS would add amendments by holding two separate meetings and voting on them in order to be approved, according to a previous Post report.
“This approach was implemented also by many other centers at our university,” President Dareen Tadros, said.
However, concerns were brought up that amendments made last year were not yet included in the current constitution, making the constitution that is being amended inaccurate. There was a debate on whether these older amendments would have to be voted on again or not.
Brett Fredericksen, department representative for environment and plant biology, said he had an issue with re-voting on amendments that were passed unanimously.
“If we reopen them to another vote, that opens them up to being changed in some way, or any way,” Fredericksen said. “Which I think it’s saying to previous bodies that we don't value their vote, which could easily be turned on us next year.”
Tadros said the new amendments were never approved by the Board of Trustees, so no changes were officially made. That leaves last year’s amendments out of the current constitution.
Concern that the previous amendments were never sent to the board to approve, and that the board would have to make a decision first, were also expressed. However, it was the board’s position that it would no longer see amendments.
If those changes are not passed, the constitution would not reflect the current work of GSS. Members passed a resolution to approve last year’s amendments to the constitution if the Board of Trustees is removed without a re-vote.
An issue summary was also proposed in order to organize long-term projects. It would be used as a jumping-off point for new bodies of GSS to continue projects that were already in the works.
