The Downtown student government Senate passed a proposal at its meeting Friday to put the universal constitution and election code to a student referendum today.
Click here to review the proposed constitution and election code. If passed, the constitution and election code will go into effect immediately.
To vote on the constitution and election code, click here.
Voting began at midnight today and will end at 4 p.m.
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Opinion: Now is not the time to rush vote on universal constitution, elections code
Several members of student government across all campuses have argued that a universal constitution is “for students, for students, for students.”
But with mere hours left before finals week begins and plans to draft a new constitution in February among the four campuses, right now is not the time to have students vote on a document that will drastically change the structure of our student government.
When we asked students to sign a petition to pass this constitution a few weeks ago, no one knew what the document was and most refused to sign something they had never read or heard about. Now, students will be given 16 hours to read over a six-page constitution and an equally lengthy elections code while they should be preparing for finals.
Is passing these documents right now really benefiting students?
One of the biggest arguments in the Senate for passing this document is to fix gaps in the current constitution, which will become our new bylaws if the universal constitution passes the student vote.
Unfortunately, the universal constitution does not solve the many problems our administration has had with the current constitution, such as Interclub Council (ICC) meeting requirements for student organizations to qualify for funding.
Additionally, our current constitution has not been reformatted as a set of bylaws in the event this new constitution passes and goes into effect immediately. This would leave the constitution vulnerable to misinterpretation until it is properly reevaluated as bylaws.
If all campus’ student governments are planning on drafting a universal constitution in February, why pass a new constitution two semesters in a row?
Fixing the problems in our existing constitution is a more reasonable plan – and better prepares us for creating a new document in the spring.
With more time and student involvement, student government really could create something amazing and long-standing for each campus.
But right now is not the appropriate time.
For now, as a Downtown student government representative fighting to keep my constituents’ experiences and opportunities on campus the best possible, I urge members of our student body to take a minute out of their busy day to vote “no” on the universal constitution referendum.
Cassinat is a senator representing the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion. Contact her at rcassina@asu.edu
