The Downtown student government Senate unanimously voted Friday to send a newly-edited universal constitution to a student vote, which, upon approval from all campuses, would unite ASU under the same governing documents.
While the universal constitution already passed on the Downtown campus last semester through a similar student referendum, the new constitution will be truly universal, with Tempe, West and Polytechnic campuses also submitting the documents to a student vote, the Senate said.
Students will be able to vote on the universal constitution on April 10-11 on the same ballot as student representatives.
“Hopefully in the future students will see a government that brings ideas in from all four campuses,” Freshman Sen. Stephanie Avalos said.
Co-chairs of the universal committee Avalos and Barrett, the Honors College Sen. Jessica Boehm have been working on this constitution since early fall semester. They voiced frustration over USG Tempe being slow to act on the constitution last semester, while both West and Polytechnic representatives were more involved.
“This was one thing that we needed someone to step up to, and (Boehm and Avalos) have done a phenomenal job,” USGD President Joseph Grossman said at Friday’s meeting.
Over the past few months, as part of a pan-campus constitution committee, two representatives from each campus have met to discuss the universal constitution, editing the document so it could be effectively used on each campus, USGD members said at Friday’s meeting.
“We really went through every line in the constitution and edited what worked and what didn’t work,” Avalos said.
James Baumer, vice president of policy for USG Tempe, said a major reason for why Tempe wasn’t as involved in the universal constitution discussions last semester was because the other campuses were changing their government to more closely follow Tempe’s student government system.
USG Tempe was also unaware the other student governments wanted to pass the constitution through referendum before the end of fall semester, he said.
“There was a lot of confusion last semester in terms of timelines,” Baumer said.
Baumer helped change the format of the original universal constitution so it would be easier to understand, Avalos said.
She said the wording of the document was confusing, which led to criticism from the student body.
If the universal constitution is passed across each campus, the campuses would maintain individuality through specific bylaws that would work within the universal constitution’s broader guidelines.
If every campus adopts the document, the biggest change for ASU would be the formation of a Supreme Court, which would deal with election appeals across all four campuses.
Each campus would select their own representative and GPSA would also have a member on the court.
The universal constitution has already had an impact Downtown, adding a third member to executive tickets in this year’s election.
Per the current constitution’s guidelines, the new constitution wouldn’t go into effect until the day after Spring Commencement.
Also during Friday’s meeting, the Senate allocated $1,000 to the Spanish Language and Culture Club and another $1,000 to the Student Nurses Association.
Director of Finance Sam Tongue said they have between $10,000 and $15,000 remaining this semester.
The last Senate meeting of the year is Friday, April 13.
Contact the reporter at smhutch1@asu.edu
Connor Radnovich contributed to this report.
