Scared? Curious? A little turned on? The fact is that the TCU Constitution, last approved by the student body in April 2003, works extremely well. Hundreds of student groups were successfully funded this year. The Senate secured a plethora of tangible changes on campus intended to improve student life. Fall Ball, Winter Bash, Spring Fling, NQR, and Tuftonia's Day were all TCU-funded. More than five elections were successfully run by the Elections Board, led by TCU-workhorse, femme fatale and all-around goddess Denise Wiseman. The TCUJ solidified its advocacy program, fended off anarchy with an efficient group re-recognition process, and didn't burn anything down.
But, as members of the TCU government for the past several years, we've found some room for improvement. Several bureaucratic things in the Constitution tend to crop up that could use tweaking (think Twelfth Amendment, poly sci majors). Alex Clark of the TCUJ, Jordana Starr of the CSL and I sat down and found several places in the Constitution that could use updating, streamlining, and general clarification based on our experiences.
Before I lay out the changes we're proposing, I want to point out that we've worked closely with as many people as possible to make these revisions effective and accommodating for everyone involved. The changes all have very specific reasons behind them (and often, specific incidents), they have all been weighed against the alternatives, and they all make sense. We've met with Director of Student Activities Jodie Nealley, Dean of Students Bruce Reitman, ELBO Chair Denise Wiseman, TCU President Jeff Katzin, the TCUJ, and the CSL. But of course, the final decision rests with a majority vote of the TCU (that's you).
So here's the breakdown.
1. Advocacy. The TCUJ started its student advocacy program over a year ago, and it has been a huge success. If you ever have to deal with the judicial process at Tufts, the program makes a student advocate trained in the process and the facts available to you. It makes sense to continue to strengthen the Advocacy Program and make it a permanent addition to the J by adding it to the Constitution. At the same time, for the last three years, all of the members of the J have had a specific position and title except one who's been floating around in limbo. After these changes take effect, he or she will finally have one: Advocacy Chair.
2. Unfilled Senate seats. Seats on the Senate that go unclaimed by a given class currently drop down to the next class; e.g. unfilled junior seats go to sophomores. The amended Constitution will give seniors first grabs at unclaimed seats, and then the lower classes. The reason is simple: while the desire is always for a Senate with 7 members from each class, in a worst-case scenario, an all-senior Senate would be more effective than an all-freshman one.
3. Assistant Treasurer. The position of Assistant Treasurer of the TCU is currently limited to freshmen. But, if one or fewer of the freshman on the Senate go for the position, it doesn't make for much of an election. The proposed amendments allow a sophomore to run for the position in this specific case.
4. The people's ELBO. Being a member of the Elections Board tends to be the most thankless job in the TCU. Members are enlisted, not elected, and generally get no thanks or glory for the job. For being the most crucial job in a democracy, it also comes with little accountability. This new Constitution finally compensates members of the Elections Board with a stipend, no different than a senior week coordinator hired by the TCU. It also finally clarifies what positions the four officials on Elections should hold, and renames the whole thing the Elections Commission, to end confusion between ELBO and ALBO, the Allocations Board. We really don't know what they were thinking three years ago when they came up with that one.
5. What's in a name? This one's simple, but a little bureaucratic. The names of the standing committees on the Senate right now are pretty vague, and it leads to confusion about each committee's turf. The referendum changes the name of the Administration and Budget Committee to Administration and Policy, and the name of the Services Committee to Services and Operations.
By the way, I'm well aware at this point that all of my viewpoints eventually degenerate into bullet points. So there's not need to keep pointing it out.
These are the changes we're proposing. They're tweaks to a system that already works suggested by people who have seen it in action. The fundamental structure of the TCU isn't changing at all, and nothing else in the Constitution has been touched.
On Thursday, there will be a referendum question on the ballot for TCU President entitled "Referendum to Amend the TCU Constitution." If you want to vote "yes" on it, that would be super.
Ed Kalafarski is a senior majoring in English and computer science. He was the TCU historian for the 2005-2006 academic year.
