SGA Passes Resolution to Restructure Exec Board, Elections

The SGA assembly recently passed a resolution that will affect the structure of future SGA assemblies.

The Commission on SGA Restructuring allowed a group of SGA members, advisor Dean Briddell and a student-at-large to closely examine the Constitution and Bylaws (C-Book) and current structure of SGA and to recommend changes to improve its “efficiency and effectiveness.”

SGA President Peter Friedrichs ’10, along with students from the sophomore, junior and senior classes, spent the past semester researching and discussing the current structure of SGA and how assembly members and their committees work with different areas of the college.

Over the years, executive boards have discussed how a ten-member board is ungainly and members like the Chair of J-Board, Chair of Academic Affairs, Chair of SAC, Chair of Residential Affairs and Chair of Diversity and Equity – are required to deal also with the everyday operations of SGA like tabling blood drive signups, creating the weekly agenda and organizing SGA-sponsored events. This arrangement tends to distract members from the unique roles and responsibilities of their individual position.

“We have looked at how the executive board currently has two functions. One is to deal with everyday things and serving the campus, while the other is to deal with campuswide issues,” said Friedrichs.

To resolve this problem and better serve students, the Commission has decided to divide the executive board into two branches: the Operations Council which will organize day-to-day operations, create agendas and plan events, and the President’s Council, which will discuss campuswide concerns and write legislation.

In this new configuration, the President, Vice President, Parliamentarian, Presidential Associate and Vice President of Public Relations would sit on the Operations Council while the President, Vice President and Chairs would sit on the President’s Council.

This will allow executive board members to better focus on their specific duties while also providing a forum to discuss and collaborate with each other on larger campus concerns.

The Environmental Representative, who is currently at the same level as senators and class presidents, has been elevated to an executive bound position: Chair of Environment Affairs. A student elected to that position will coordinate the House Environmental Representatives.

Friedrichs said, “Environmentalism is one of Conn’s core values and one central to shared governance. It seemed appropriate to add the position to its rightful position on the executive board, alongside Chair of J-Board, Chair of Diversity & Equity and Chair of Academic Affairs.”

The core values and mission of the college are academic excellence; diversity, equity and shared governance; education of the entire person; community service and global citizenship; adherence to common ethical and moral standards and environmental stewardship. The student governing body of the college now better reflects the college’s emphasis on environmentalism with the Environmental Representative now named Chair of Environmental Affairs.

Several positions have title changes as well, albeit with less impact on their duties: the Public Relations Director has been renamed the Vice President of Public Relations in order to recognize the importance of the position and the Public Relations committee in planning SGA events and campaigns. The Vice President will now be called the Vice President for Finance.

The Parliamentarian who is in charge of running meetings and ensuring the Assembly follows parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order, will no longer be appointed by the SGA President, but voted on by the Assembly at the first fall semester meeting. The hope is that the Parliamentarian will be held more accountable to the Assembly.

It will remain a non-voting member position, like the Presidential Associate.

Senators will be elected early fall semester, rather than at the room selection night in spring semester. This will allow freshmen, students studying abroad, and those on the single’s waitlist who are not housed until after the selection night the opportunity to run for position as senator.

These changes reflect just one phase of the larger restructuring proposals currently being brought forward at SGA.

The next proposal (section two) addresses the effectiveness of SGA committees and breaks them into SGA-specific committees, student-run committees and staff committees.

Further recommendations for the positions of Vice President of Public Relations, Chair of Residential Affairs, Parliamentarian and Chair of Judicial Board have been submitted to the current officers. These recommendations will be further explored at the elect’s discretion or forwarded onto the incoming executive board.

As all major changes to the C-Book that affect a large number of students in and outside of Student Government, the changes will be voted on in a campuswide referendum this week.