A summary of proposed constitutional amendments

1. Changes to the structure of student governmenta. Replacement of "Senate" by "Assembly" and addition of Club Support Board

The body currently named the Student Union Senate would become the Student Union Assembly, which would maintain all current powers granted to the Senate except for the power to recognize, charter, de-recognize or de-charter clubs. The Union would establish a Club Support Board to deal exclusively with matters pertaining to student organizations, including chartering and de-chartering.

b. Election of the vice president

"In order to allow for greater cohesion within the Student Union," the vice president of the Student Union would be elected internally instead of by a vote of the student body.

c. "Union Judiciary" changed to "Student Judiciary"

The change in the constitution's language emphasizes that the Judiciary is run for and by students. The changes would also grant "students the opportunity to use the Judiciary to resolve conflict with a less formal, mediation resolution process." The changes state explicitly the criteria on which the Judiciary must make its decisions and advocates the creation of a Public Defender position to represent students in need of legal counsel.

d. Finance Board member and treasurer training

The committee advocates changes that ensure the appropriate preparation for members of the Finance Board and the Treasurer. Candidates for the position of Treasurer would need to announce their candidacy four weeks prior to the election to give adequate time for training and "newly elected Finance Board members shall undergo a mandatory two-week training prior to the end of the semester."

2. Senator for racial minority students and finance board member for racial minority students change in title

The title of the senator and Finance Board member representing minorities would be changed from representative of "racial minority students," to representative of "historically underrepresented races." Any member of the student body could run for either position, although voting would be limited to the constituency of "historically underrepresented races."

3. Definition of secured organizations

The committee recommends defining secured organizations as "those organizations that the student body recognizes as fundamental to the mission of the university."

4. Securing SSIS

The committee recommends that Student Sexuality Information Service be secured because of its 37 years of service and its continued importance in serving the essential needs of the Brandeis community.

5. Securing Students for Environmental Action

To demonstrate Brandeis' commitment to environmental causes, the committee proposes securing SEA, because it "serves all students on campus in the attempt to make us a more sustainable and environmentally conscious University."

6. Rewording language regarding secured organizations' funding

The current constitution uses the word "baseline" to describe the suggested amount of funding allocated to secured organizations. The new language would replace "baseline"with "benchmark," suggesting that the Finance Board should consider the figure allotted in the constitution as a guideline instead of a maximum amount of funds to be allocated to any given organization.

7. Increasing funds allotted to BEMCo

The committee has proposed increasing the amount of funds that BEMCo can request from the Finance Board from $23,500 to $30,000. While this does not mean that BEMCo will necessarily use this amount every year, it gives the organization the opportunity to request the funds should it require them. A larger budget also gives BEMCo more flexibility in reporting its budget to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which it must do each year as an ambulance corps.

8. Inclusion of Club Sports memorandum

The Club Sports program's funding process was agreed upon three years ago by the Student Union and the Department of Athletics. To make agreement official, the committee suggests incorporating the "Agreement of Understanding" between the two parties into the constitution.

9. Board of Trustees representatives

The proposed amendment states that at least two students should be representatives on the Board of Trustees, making it possible for more representatives to be elected should the opportunity arise in the future.

10. Instant runoff voting

Rather than vote only for their first-choice candidate, students would rank candidates on a ballot. If a candidate does not receive a majority of votes, there is no second election. Instead, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and all ballots whose first-ranked candidate was eliminated have their second-place vote counted instead. The process repeats until one candidate has a majority of the vote. According to the report, this is intended to simplify elections, eliminate the problem of low voter turnout for second-round elections and, claims the report, "more accurately represent the will of the student body in elections."

11. Changes to the constitutional review process

These proposed changes to the composition of the Constitutional Review Committee and to the voting process are intended to "make [the review process] run smoother in the future" and include a mandate that in the future, reviews begin earlier in the semester than this year's review did.

-compiled by Hannah Kirsch, Emily Kraus and Harry Shipps