In November, the student body will vote on whether to align Student Association sessions with the academic year, which is part of the organization’s proposed constitution.   

A motion to rescind the amendment that aligned future sessions with the academic year instead of the calendar year failed on Monday’s SA meeting in Hall of Languages.

Dan Hernandez, chair of the Board of Elections and Membership, made the motion to rescind the change. One of his concerns was the timing of the amendment.

“It’s unethical in the fact that we’re changing it in the middle of election season,” Hernandez said. “I don’t believe this is the right time to change it in the association’s history. We need to not just change to change, but change because we have a good reason.”

In response, Stephen DeSalvo, SA’s comptroller, said the only time it was possible to make such an amendment was during an election season, since students have to vote on it.

Another one of Hernandez’s issues with the change was the possibility that a second semester senior could be president, and then would still technically hold office a few weeks after graduating. That’s because the original timing change called for the session to last until July 31.

Parliamentarian Ben Jones added to that point by saying there are other things second semester seniors have to focus on outside of SA.

“The more I think about it, it really is problematic to have a second semester senior president serving while they really should be thinking about other things,” Jones said. “I understand if you choose to do this you’re making that choice, but at the same time if you’re thinking about your job or your thesis or your capstone I think it does detract.”

Vice President Duane Ford voiced another concern with changing the session to align with the academic year by saying that it doesn’t give the former president time to give guidance to the incoming president. He added that the new president would have to pick his or her cabinet during the summer, which could restrict the ability of non-assembly members to be on cabinet.

“It looks good on paper, but I don’t think in actuality it will be very good for the association,” Ford said. 

Under the current election schedule, presidents are elected in November and take office in January, allowing them to work with the outgoing president — an overlap Ford and others feared would be lost with the new schedule.

But Recorder Nick Bonafilia said the president would be elected in the spring — likely in March — and take office in May under the new session terms. He said that would give the president-elect time to transition into the role. Bonafilia also said he believed there were ways to avoid the issue of having a student who just graduated being president without rescinding the amendment.

In the final vote, there were 14 assembly members in favor of the motion to rescind, and 15 opposed.

Following that vote, the assembly amended the length of the session to begin on May 1 and end April 30.

Prior to discussing the session alignment change, the assembly reviewed Articles V through X, which included an amendment that said Administrative Operations would review the constitution every two years.

The assembly approved the proposed constitution, and then passed a bill that placed the constitution on the ballot for students to approve.

Published on October 22, 2013 at 1:38 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27