The Student Association will attempt to reinvent itself, creating a student committee with the power to recommend changes in the SA’s structure and function.

The SA passed the bill Monday creating the Student Association Reorganization Team, or START. The team’s mission will be to create a vision for the SA’s future and recommend any changes that need to be made. SA President Andrew Thomson, who sponsored the bill, said that while he has no concrete plans for the team, he is looking toward creating an SA that does more for students.

“This will be a think tank,” Thomson said. “It will brainstorm what student of government should look like.”

The team will be chaired by Thomson and will include one voting seat filled by Parliamentarian Gregory Jones. The remaining seats will be filled with representatives from campus governing organizations, such as University Union, Interfraternity Council, Residence Hall Association, Panhellenic Council and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Undergraduate Student Association, with four or five seats reserved for at-large representatives not affiliated with any organization.

The creation of START is the second phase of the SA’s evaluation and reorganization process. Earlier in the semester, it created the Committee on Structural Research to investigate student government at other colleges and universities. Thomson will compile the results of that investigation and present them to the assembly. START will have access to those reports but not at its first meeting. Thomson said he wanted to give the team a chance to develop some original ideas before looking at models from other schools. The team will also have the ability to order more research from the committee.

The bill passed without opposition. Jones felt it was an important step towards increasing non-member involvement in the SA’s governing process.

“I think this is a great opportunity to involve other organizations on campus,” Jones said. “This bill is essential for student government as we stand right now.”

In other SA news:

n The Assembly voted to amend the bill that created the Armory Square Shuttle service, eliminating the last two weekends of service. Thomson said that he would spend the summer coming up with ways to better promote the service, which has had fluctuating levels of ridership since it began operation in February.

Vice President Rigaud Noel, who sponsored the bill that created the shuttle, was not in attendance for the debate but said in a memo to the SA that he would support a decision to use the $2,000 dollars saved by canceling the shuttle to support the program next semester.

Published on April 14, 2003 at 12:00 pm