During the past few weeks, the Student Association has been reviewing a proposed constitution piece by piece, which includes the addition of a speaker of the assembly and changing the timing of the session.

But these proposals are similar to the organization’s constitution from the late 1990s. The constitution was amended in 1998 and placed the president back in charge of running meetings.

Jonathan Taylor was the speaker for the organization during the 40th Session, and he said in an email that both the current and proposed systems are effective.

Since the proposed constitution has similarities to the constitution from 15 years ago, Taylor said some of the changes today could be perceived as moving backward if made for no compelling reason other than nostalgia.

But Parliamentarian Ben Jones said current changes resembling the past were never based on reversing things for the sake of reversing things.

“We’re making changes that we believe will be beneficial regardless of the fact that they may be similar to the way they were in the past,” Jones said. “If it’s similar to the past, it just means our needs have changed.”

Taylor said regardless of what happens with the new proposed constitution, changes are bound to happen again.

“Each generation has the right to define for themselves their most effective structure,” Taylor said. “It may be another 15 years, but it will change again.”

Vice President Duane Ford said he’s been pleased with most of the changes the assembly has made to the proposed constitution thus far.

Many of the changes would allow SA members to do their jobs more effectively and better run the organization, he said.

One change calls for the sessions to align with the academic calendar instead of the current system, where each session runs the calendar year. Ford said that particular change could have some unintended consequences, such as the next president, vice president and comptroller serving for a year and a half.

“Since everyone currently running is a junior, that means they’ll be president as a senior, and I’m not sure how effective a second semester senior will be as president of the student body when they have to worry about getting a job and what happens after college,” Ford said.

Published on October 15, 2013 at 2:41 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27