The Student Association Assembly passed a series of proposed "housekeeping" amendments to its constitution on Tuesday, April 16. The proposals deal with a variety of issues, including the reapportionment of SA Senate seats, the move of the Speaker of the Assembly election to April from the second meeting of the fall semester, and faster admittance to the Assembly for new and returning members. Most measures will, if approved by the SA Senate, improve the efficiency of SA. Other amendments, however, are simply ill conceived.
The decision to move the election of the Assembly Speaker to the spring is a good change. The old system would have SA vice-president running the first meeting of the year and would subsequently result in the executive board setting the agenda of the legislature. The old system also made it possible that a freshman could be elected to the position of speaker after attending a maximum of only two meetings.
Not all of the proposals serve a benign purpose. One would alter the process by which returning Assembly are re-admitted into the legislative body, replacing the mandatory, 40-signature petition with the option of obtaining the signature of either a two out of three members of the executive board or the speaker. While more time-efficient for members, the passing of such an amendment could, in the case of the executive board, result in a direct infringement of separation of powers. As for the speaker, having the option to deny or allow the return of members easily becomes an issue of conflict of interest.
Another problematic initiative involves the Senate. Since its inception, the Senate's 12 elected seats have been divided equally between three groups: four senators for temporary off-campus students- i.e., those who are not native to Buffalo; four senators for on-campus students; and four senators for the commuter population. While it makes sense to combine the commuter and off-campus groups, allowing them six representatives to the residents' six representatives may be too hasty. This proposed amendment is the first attempt at accurately representing the student body since it began in the 1950s, except for the fact that it does not accurately represent the student body. While the ratio of residents to commuters is leveling off, there is still an approximate seven-to-five ratio of students living off-campus to those living on campus.
SA should instead institute a plan similar to that of the United States government, which every 10 years reapportions the set number of seats in the House of Representatives to the populations of the states. Instead of doing a head count and adjustment every decade like the federal government, SA should determine the ratio of on- to off-campus students at least once every four years to more accurately represent the students.
While we are pleased with the Assembly for conducting in-house cleanup, they should exercise more caution when policies affect requirements of their membership and not give into impulsiveness when observing trends. SA would do well by itself to take the example of the U.S. Congress when making determinations about how to organize itself. After all, congressmen and congresswomen do not get to serve another term because president lets them and states do not get more representatives than their fair share.
