The Student Association’s parliamentarian proposed a new SA constitution Monday, saying that as time has passed, the needs of the organization have changed.

SA’s weekly meeting began at about 7:45 p.m. and took place in the Shaffer Art Building. At the meeting, the new constitution was presented to the assembly. In addition, three student assembly members were elected.

The proposed constitution dictated that a speaker of the assembly, instead of the president, will preside over SA meetings. Another change included creating more defined roles for the president and vice president.

“This new constitution aims to make things clearer and make things work better,” Parliamentarian Ben Jones said.

He added that the president will still be the leader and primary spokesperson for SA, but when supervising meetings, the elected speaker would take the president’s place.

The new draft also outlined the vice president’s role, which will be as a liaison between the cabinet and assembly. The assembly will interpret the vice president’s role at SA’s discretion.

Jones said the assembly will continue to discuss the proposed constitution throughout the next couple weeks. There will be an opportunity to make changes before voting on the new constitution, he said.

Three seats were also filled during the meeting. Two students were elected as representatives for the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, and a third student was elected to the only open seat for the School of Architecture.

Anjani Ladhar and Zachary Reers were elected to be L.C. Smith representatives, filling two of the three open seats for the school.

Ladhar, an undeclared freshman in L.C. Smith, said she believed she would be able to represent the females in the school.

“I’ve seen in my classes in engineering that the guy-to-girl ratio is like 3-to-1, so I feel that having a girl representative from the engineering school is important,” Ladhar said.

Comptroller Stephen DeSalvo said Ladhar showed interest in getting involved with her college and Syracuse University as a whole, which he believed would make her a great addition to SA.

Reers, a freshman bioengineering major, filled the second seat. He stood out for his preparation before the meeting, said Nick Bonafilia, a senior chemical engineering major.

“He read through the constitution before coming to SA,” Bonafilia said. “He showed a lot of passion for SA.”

Patricia Cafferky, a third-year architecture student, was elected to fill the only open seat for the School of Architecture.

“Architecture students generally keep to themselves, and I think it’s a problem,” Cafferky said. “I’d love to play a role in fixing that and showing them the other things they can be involved in.”

Bonafilia said it can be tough to find architecture students with the time and energy to represent the school in SA. This, Bonafilia said, is why he supported electing Cafferky.

At the end of the meeting, President Allie Curtis announced Cara Johnson will be stepping down from her role in public relations. Curtis said she will take care of public relations matters until a new chair is put in place.

 

blsamuel@syr.edu

Published on September 24, 2013 at 3:04 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27