It’s not easy to make generalizations about government as a whole. The concept is too large and too complicated for a simple phrase to fully encapsulate even a small part of that process.
But it’s usually considered a good idea to spend more than one week discussing a brand new constitution.
Student senate brought a new constitute to the floor at a special meeting Thursday, and if approved, it would make significant changes to the roles of elected officers and to the structure of Student Government.
Senate plans to vote on it next week. If they OK it, the proposal would be put to the student body next month. Students would be given just a few weeks before they’d have to vote on whether to replace the current constitution.
That’s a big decision. So, why has senate been allowed only one week to debate it? Why is Student Government giving the student body — the group it’s charged to represent — such little notice before giving it a major vote to consider?
SG officers say this is the last possible time they have to move the new constitution through. Any delay would derail the proposal. Even this week’s snow threatened its feasibility, but senate held a special session to keep it alive.
That simply isn’t acceptable.
Legislation takes time to hone, and that’s when senate is dealing with smaller issues, not the document that governs them. While the new legislation might have been worked on extensively behind closed doors, senate’s entire purpose is to represent the student body by putting forward and fine-tuning legislation.
It is their job, not the bill’s sponsors, to decide what finally gets presented to the student body.
Amendments, wording and general ideas need to be thoroughly discussed in the senate in order to create a document worthy of the people they represent. Doing so takes longer than a week.
If they are not given enough time, they cannot do their jobs properly. It is as simple as that.
Additionally, if the proposal ever gets to the general population for a vote, how can the student body be expected to make an informed decision on a new constitution that hasn’t been thoroughly discussed?
Don’t get us wrong; Student Government may well need to make changes to its structure in order to run more efficiently. But if SG wants to become more efficient, using its time to craft new ideas and programs — initiatives that would benefit USC and its students — instead of worrying about insider issues would go a long way.
Even so, if SG decides these changes are truly necessary, the constitution isn’t set to go into effect until 2015, so there is more than enough time for this debate to carry over into the next school year, if need be.
Changing how SG works is a conversation worth having. But before we take a vote, we need to have that conversation.