Brown finalizes new plan for government

The former vice president of the Undergraduate Student Government has finished his blueprint for a new student government and has begun petitioning members of the SIU administration for approval.

Nate Brown held a closed-door meeting with Chancellor Walter Wendler Friday to discuss the details of putting together a student government to replace the system.

Wendler, who has not commented on the recent USG unrest, will have to decide whether Brown's proposal for a new government, if passed by a majority vote in April, will become a reality.

Wendler has shied away from comments about the state of USG but has said Brown's idea is interesting. Wendler said, however, like much of the student body, he does not know the exact details of Brown's plans. He said Brown's proposal strikes at the heart of democracy.

"It's an interesting idea," Wendler said. "Nate has good intentions." Brown said he has been planning a series of meetings with SIUC officials for the past week to discuss what problems they believe USG must overcome. He said previous student governments have shunned Wendler and other officials of the administration.

Brown said opening lines of communication with University officials would help any governing body understand how they play into the university setting. "Those are relationships that USG has not had," Brown said. "The senators don't even see the administration." Brown said he has completed formulating what will be the constitution for the new governing body, the Association for Undergraduate Students. Today, Brown said he begins the signature phase of his campaign. He said he intends to have half of the 5,000 signatures needed to put his proposal on the ballot in April by the end of the week.

Over the past two weeks Brown has had meetings with senators, former senators and various student constituency heads to tighten his vision into a concrete plan. At those meetings, several of Brown's proposals were changed. What started off as a new government with 18 seats available has been upped to 24 seats, Brown said. Brown's original idea to have senators elected by the deans of the colleges they represent has now been replaced with college-wide elections. Each college would hold its own separate elections, and only the president and vice president would run on a University-wide ticket. To tackle senator apathy, senators would be expected to submit goals for resolutions and amendments to the vice president by Oct. 1. The senators then will have to produce reports about their progress of their goals. The president would also have to present a "State of a Union" address every semester inform the University community on the senate's progress.

Last week, six senators came out against Brown's complete overhaul but were ready to change USG from within, saying Brown was taking the power away from students.

The new government would also do away with the judicial branch of USG, which Brown said is largely inactive. Brown said getting rid of the judicial branch would help eliminate the existing senate bureaucracy that impedes senate actions.

He has also proposed a change to the funding process that would introduce a separate Student Organization Regulatory Board of 12 members to oversee the senate's more than $450,000 budget. Two of the board's members would be representatives from the Student Development staff. The board would relieve the senate from its duties of appropriating money. Senators often have complained of the time spent at meetings on funding RSOs.

At last week's USG meeting, Senator Andy Fruth proposed an amendment that was approved at the senate's last meeting that will take some of the burden off the senate to appropriate money for small items like posters and advertisements for groups. Fruth said he was fed up with the time spent by the senate on assigning funds to groups.

The vice president, Brown said, now will fill vacancies left on the senate. During the eight months Brown was in power, USG never had a full senate and operates with 33 of its 58 seats full.

Brown said he will be calling other administrators in effort to garner support from them for his plan if it lands on the ballot in April. "Next year I want to see something new," Brown said.