Author: Laura Bertocci
Associated Students of Occidental College (ASOC) President Andrew DeBlock (senior) is spearheading a revision of the ASOC Constitution and re-evaluation of their policies, to be voted on by the student body in the fall of 2010. The Senate, the General Assembly (GA) and the Honor Board will meet within the next two weeks to construct a draft of amendments. At this meeting, they will combine a draft written by DeBlock and former senator Joellen Anderson (junior) with other propositions from the Senate’s, Honor Board’s and the GA’s initial discussions and meetings. The finalized Constitution will be presented to the student body in an open forum during the third week of April for students to give feedback of the draft. The ASOC officers will bring their proposed Constitution to the student body for final approval at the beginning of the 2010 fall term.
“If [students] have complaints, then that’s what the students want. We’ll go back to the drawing board and strategize new ideas. Either way, we know the current system isn’t working,” said Honor Board Chair Shannon Hurley (senior).
The constitutional modifications will potentially transfer the duty of legislative review from the GA to the Honor Board, as well as redefine the GA’s yearly agenda. The ASOC Senate will additionally overhaul their funding process for student organizations, which is not regulated by the ASOC Constitution, but by separate funding guidelines.
“This is now a more comprehensive revision of a document that is considered in my mind somewhat flawed,” said DeBlock. The current constitution mandates a quadrennial analysis of the document’s effectiveness to check misuses of power and shortcomings as they occur. The beginning of the 2010 spring term marks the initiation of the scheduled examination and revision process.
The current constitution was written after the reinstatement of the ASOC after it was disbanded by the administration. Six years ago, officers within the ASOC were implicated in charges of money laundering and abuse of power, which resulted in lawsuits against the school and a dissolving of the organization as a whole. Two years later, students were given the opportunity to reform the ASOC and its governing bodies, resulting in the current system and legislation, according to DeBlock.
A major component of the revisions is the reconsideration of the GA’s functionality. “The GA is the main focus [of the constitutional revisions] because students . . . said that the General Assembly isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. The way it’s written in the Constitution is not effective. And we need to find a way to make this body actually one that students go to,” said DeBlock.Currently, the GA is intended to provide a setting for students to form committees through which they can advocate specific proposals for change, as was stated in a recent ASOC constitutional amendment. The GA also acts as a check on potential ASOC legislation.
Plans for the GA have yet to be fully developed. However, ASOC officers are looking to minimize the GA’s role in legislation and are also attempting to determine how the GA can be most effective as a student forum, said DeBlock. According to the ASOC Web site, the GA’s Mission is “to address campus policies, raise student issues, and begin the process of developing comprehensive solutions to student concerns.”
ASOC officers are satisfied with the GA’s mission statement but think that its current operations are not effective. “The failing of the current system is that it’s great in principle but it hasn’t been actualized. The biggest problem is students haven’t seen the ASOC to be worth the time to show up,” Hurley said.
DeBlock cited the relative inexperience of new GA members as another reason for the body’s current ineffectiveness. “[The GA co-chairs] are both brand new, so it’s kind of getting them up to speed on all of their processes . . . [among more experienced ASOC officers] there’s a base of knowledge that doesn’t exist with the GA co-chairs that are both brand new to ASOC,” said DeBlock.
When asked about his opinion of the current proposal, GA co-chair Andrew Leede (senior) responded, “I don’t know, I don’t have that, you’re talking to the wrong GA. I’m graduating, I couldn’t give less of a fuck.” The other GA co-chair Dan Wolf (first-year) was unavailable for comment.As per their initial discussions, the ASOC officers are looking to revise quorum requisites and required number of meetings per semester, said DeBlock. The Constitution requires a quorum of 17 students, seven of which must be Senators, to attend the five mandated General Assembly meetings per year, as stated in the ASOC constitution.
However, the General Assembly has had difficulty reaching quorum. “If you can’t get 17 students to attend a meeting when you’re only holding two meetings at most a semester . . . something needs to be rectified there. We need a better way to have a forum that is actually useful to students and can effectively gage student feelings on campus,” said DeBlock.
Current ASOC officers have expressed hope that the new legislation will encourage greater student participation and input.
“I want students to realize that the GA is a place where they can approach the co-chairs and say, ‘This is an issue that I have, I want a larger opinion.’ . . . Few students understand what the ASOC is as a resource, and once they become aware, hopefully the new system will be effective,” said Leede.
DeBlock and Hurley also plan to expand the
Honor Board’s authority to monitor the ASOC Senate. Within the new amendments, the Honor Board will have the prerogative to check the constitutionality of any legislation introduced by the Senate.
“The Honor Board is too dependent on students filing cases against constitutional violations. Right now, if something passed through the Senate that was unconstitutional, if no one complained, we would have to sit on our hands,” said Hurley.
Though most involved are supportive of the constitution’s revisions, ASOC Treasurer Aliza Goldsmith (sophomore) stated that the new plan is far from finalized.
“Nothing at all is concrete yet. Only six senators have seen it, and we haven’t proposed it to clubs or the senate yet. It could all go down toilet,” Goldsmith said. “The Constitution – everything and anything is up for debate. It would be too premature to say anything definite.”
Additional reporting by Martha Carol.
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