The student body voted on Sunday to approve an amendment to the Student Union Constitution for the creation of a constitutional review system, according to an email from Student Union Secretary Sneha Walia '15 to the Brandeis community.

With 280 students voting, 82 percent voted to approve the amendment, nine percent voted against the amendment and nine percent abstained.

Walia wrote in her email that "the Union will begin working on the Constitutional Review Task Force this week."

The amendment adds to the Constitution an independent constitutional review, which will take place every four years. The amendment affirms that,"the Student Judiciary will be responsible for the facilitation and upkeep of the Student Union Constitution."

For this review, the Student Union president will convene a task force of five to 10 students and one to two alumni who must then be confirmed by the Senate.

The task force will first elect a chair, determine meeting procedure and organize subcommittees to address different parts of the Constitution. The committee must hold meetings (either public or closed) at least once a month.

The final product of the task force will be a report on existing practices, a list of "best practices" suggested and proposals (which may take the form of amendments to the Constitution sent directly to the student body) to fix inefficiencies and use best practices. This report will be completed and released "no later than the first week of March," according to the amendment.

In a written argument submitted by Student Union President Ricky Rosen '14 in favor of the amendment, Rosen wrote that he views the change as a necessity.

"The Constitution has not actually been modified on a [large scale] in many years," he wrote. "The language of the Constitution is dense and difficult to follow and there are a lot of words to say very little; for reference, the U.S. Constitution contains 4,400 words, and our Constitution contains almost 9,000."

He stated three general goals for the review: reducing the Constitution's size and complexity, updating outdated information and integrating more student ideas.

Before this amendment, the language in the Constitution simply stated that "If no substantial change or review of the Constitution has been conducted in four years, the Judiciary will need to conduct a mandatory Constitutional Review, conducting a full review of all aspects of the Union, including the operation of clubs, Secured Organizations and Union Government."

In addition to the constitutional review process, the amendment also states that: "Any member of the Brandeis Undergraduate student community may approach the Judiciary, requesting any kind of change to the Constitution. Such member must provide substantial reasoning for the Judiciary to act further."
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