Stephen Thomas has a challenging task ahead of him. As new parliamentarian, Thomas is responsible for rewriting SA’s codes so that they fit with the new constitution.

Last semester members of SA, lead by parliamentarian Ben Jones, worked tirelessly to write the new constitution. But the constitution is not complete without codes, which are rules that enforce the amendments. Thomas will need to not only match the constitution, but the pragmatic needs of the current association.

Nedda Sarshar, a member of the Administrative Operations Committee that oversees the process, thinks that the committee will bring the change the association needs in a short amount of time.  Sarshar explained that, for the first time in many sessions, the Ad Op Committee is full.

Members of the committee include representatives from the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Along with a diversity of schools, there is a diversity of age on the committee. Half of the members of the committee are freshmen, while the other half are upperclassmen. Former SA president Allie Curtis is also a member.

The codes need to change because the old ones are faulty, Sarshar said. “Our current codes cause as many problems as when our politics get in the way,” Sarshar said.

This is why the committee is working feverishly to change them.

In their first meeting of the semester last Sunday, members met for three hours in an effort to hear everyone’s opinions and come out with a new deal. Thomas led the discussion and spearheaded an aggressive plan that he announced to the assembly during Monday night’s meeting.

Thomas plans to have a draft of the codes featuring 18 revamped pages by the next SA meeting on Feb. 3. Just like he did at the committee meeting, Thomas opened the floor to the rest of the SA assembly members to offer suggestions and constructive criticism.

One of the more prominent issues centered on whether to eliminate home college committees from the current codes. The home college committees, which more than half of the current assembly members have never attended, were designed to bring together members of the same college.

According to current operation code, the home college committees “will be responsible for communicating the initiatives of the Student Association to the constituents of their respective colleges and charged with bringing the concerns of those constituents before the assembly.”

These committees, which Jones called the mystery of the 55th session, have never really been successful. They have also caused nothing but confusion in the organization.

Despite the wishes of the former and current parliamentarian, assembly members voted to keep the home college committees in the operations codes, creating more work for the Administrative Operations Committee.  Although the committees are just another item that Ad Op has to worry about, representative Nia Boles said she believes they are still important.

“We are getting rid of them just because we don’t understand them,” Boles said.

As Thomas works on the codes with all students in mind, a clear and concise focus for SA is on the way. With Thomas’ approach of taking everyone’s opinion into account, his restructuring of the codes will not only bring transparency to the organization, but also solidarity.

Samantha Netzband is a freshman political science major. She can be reached at sanetzba@syr.edu. 

 

Published on January 30, 2014 at 2:02 am