SGA Graphic | Graphic by Grace Merkle | The Wright State Guardian
On Jan. 25, SGA (Student Government Association) announced a revamp and edit of their constitution and bylaws, which continue to be clarified as time progresses.
Constitution
According to previously announced changes, The House of Representatives is no longer a part of SGA. The responsibilities will be absorbed by the Director of Student Affairs and Director of Student Organizations. The House of Representatives had decreased participation in town hall meetings, so it was determined that it would not be proper to continue with this branch.
“The idea behind striking the whole entire branch and then switching the Speaker of the House position over to Director of Student organizations is that it more fits in line with a ‘How can we help you?’ type of question, instead of ‘what can you do for us to help you?’ type of thing,” President Jonathon Ciero said.
The director of student affairs will assist with major SGA events and running the annual SGA student life survey. This position will then brainstorm and put into action motions based on the results of this survey.
The director of student organizations will help be the voice for student organizations and collect feedback from these organizations. They will also assist with organization collaboration events.
The removal of speaker of the house for the House of Representatives makes room in the budget for the Lake Campus senator position while also accommodating for the director of student organizations position.
The Lake Campus senator position will not take affect until the 2022-23 school year. This senator will better represent the interests of the Lake campus and will have voting privileges.
Liaison senators also did not have voting privileges, leading to their removal.
“It [liaison removal] is a good way to make sure that there is voice in vote because the liaisons to senators didn’t have voice in vote, they could put in some feedback. But when it came down to making any impact on changes, they didn’t get a say,” Diana Johnson, director of external affairs, said.
Another senator position removal was the university college senator, which was officially changed last year due to budget cuts. The recent change officially removed it from being mentioned in the Constitution.
The qualifications for running for SGA President remained the same, with requirements for running for Vice President being changed slightly.
For President, applicants must be a sophomore at the time of application with at least two consecutive semesters as a Wright State University (WSU) student. Vice President applicants may be a freshman at the time of application with at least two semesters as a WSU student.
“What was written last week said juniors at the time of application, which was not our intent. We were thinking juniors at their appointment, so this meeting actually outlined how we were going to roll back that change. It is now sophomores [for Vice President],” Chris Jenkins, Policy Administrator, said.
Bylaws
SGA presidents historically use the executive order power very sparingly in recent years, with the power being used approximately once for each of the last three SGA presidents. The recent change to the SGA bylaws explicitly mentioned and gave executive order power to presidents.
“It is left vague intentionally because it’s been set up for unforeseen circumstances and so we can’t legislate something that’s unforeseen,” Ciero said.
The policy administrator would have the power to strike down anything that they feel violates the SGA Constitution and Bylaws. The limits of this power come from the policy administrator acting as a judicial branch.
The Constitution Committee agrees that the most important thing that comes of these changes is that it creates clarification for students. The Constitution and Bylaws are traditionally read through at least once a year and changed every few years.
