March 29, 2011 - 8:17pm
MSA Musings: Student group continues efforts to amend constitution
BY ELY TWIGGS
About 20 students gathered in the Union tonight at a meeting hosted by the Students for Progressive Governance—a student group formed to revamp the student constitution—to discuss proposed revisions to the campus’ governing document.
Phillip Zeeck, a S4PG member and first year law student said that a main problem the organization is trying to resolve is the apathetic attitude of most students toward student government.
“Student’s don’t care,” Zeeck said, “We have to start with ways to revise.”
Zeeck said one of S4PG’s main goals is to improve the logistics of the Michigan Student Assembly. According to Zeeck, the current MSA structure, when drawn, looks like “the worlds worst Venn diagram.”
“Part of what we want to do it to make (the structure) more clear and more familiar,” said Veeck. “If you are not a plugged into the Assembly, you don’t get to play.”
In a Viewpoint published in The Michigan Daily yesterday, MSA Vice President Mike Rorro, the chair of S4PG, said that S4PG wants to “divide the basic powers of student government among the executive, legislative and judicial branches” and “make government more democratic by including the college, housing and organization governments that are a vital voice in campus conversation.”
For the revisions to take effect, the majority of the voting student body must approve the document. To get the document on the March campus-wide ballot, S4PG must collect 1,000 student signatures by Feb. 17.
At the beginning of the school year, MSA attempted to re-do the constitution by creating a constitutional convention, one of the ways the constitution permits students to amend it. A duly elected convention can bypass collecting signatures and place its revised document directly on the ballot.
But, in Nov. the University’s judicial body ruled that the convention was unconstitutionally assembled. The Central Student Judiciary found that MSA had violated the provisions set by the constitution for creating a convention by selecting applicants to serve on it rather than allowing students to elect its members.
After this ruling, Rorro, who previously chaired the convention, formed S4PG to continue updating the constitution.
“It’s actually much more difficult to do it this way, because we need to get those 1,000 signatures in a petition,” Rorro said, “but overall, I think it’s going to be worth it.”
Stephen Ratkovich, external relations officer on LSA Student Government, is enthusiastic about the proposed changes. Ratkovich said changes need to occur in order for a more effective student government body.
“There is definitely something wrong with the system now,” Ratkovich said.
Ratkovich said that the revised constitution is “definitely in a draft phase.”
—Alexa Breedveld contributed to this report.
