Former VP hands in new USG constitution

The Undergraduate Student Government took some of the proposals drafted by its harshest critic and adapted them as its own Wednesday night. The changes mirror many of the proposals made by former Vice President Nate Brown, who resigned after proposing a new government. Brown was one of several senators who gathered over the summer to rework the old constitution. The proposals from the summer meeting were the basis for the changes made Wednesday. Brown wrote the revision to the constitution and the amendments that passed by a two-thirds majority at USG's meeting. Some of the amendments were changed over five special meetings that preceded the group's bi-weekly meetings. There were some amendments that were proposed by other senators that were added to the summer revision.

Senator TyJuan Cratic, however, said the changes were not solely Brown's doing, but the efforts of a small group of senators who met during the summer to overhaul the old constitution. He said some of the senators, whom Cratic would not name, were opposed to compromise. He said the people against a negotiated version of the plan were opposed to an open and free government.

"It's a constitution, not a dictatorship," Cratic said. "Those people are gone now, and we were able to work things out in a more democratic fashion." Brown disagreed, saying the talks over the summer were not productive. "You want to talk about things and talk about things until it's perfect, and if it's not, you're not willing to settle on something in between," Brown said. "They were never ready for a vote; they just said, 'We'll not talk about it anymore.'"

After months of trying to pass a new constitution in the fall, President Tequia Hicks became frustrated with the senate's inability to pass changes to the constitution. Hicks said senators were uninterested with the tedious nature of amending and passing a new constitution for the governing body. Hicks said in recent weeks the senate has become reenergized.

The changes in the governing body's internal structure come one month before elections, which will run in opposition to Brown's proposal for a new government. Before he resigned, Brown said senators were uninterested in change and that he could only change the way the government worked by starting a new body.

Newly named Vice President Sarah Gray said senators understood changes should happen but were opposed to a total overhaul. Gray said Brown's Association for Undergraduate Students, the proposed government's name, has given the senators new life.

"There were little things that didn't work," Gray said. "We needed to change those few things but not have a complete overhaul. The senators feel they have a competition, and they're stepping it to show that USG will be better then AUS." Calling the old constitution both "irrelevant and out of date" as well as parts of it "tedious and unnecessary" in the agenda for its meeting, the senate passed amendments that limited the number of seats available and changed some of the conflict of interest qualifications for its branches.

The senate adopted a revision to the constitution that lowered the number of seats from 58 to 43. The revision eliminated the number of housing seats open, some of which had six positions available, to two across all housing areas. It also mandated that senators representing colleges now will have one elected senator for every 500 students instead of 400.

Members of executive committees, such as the finance, executive branch and judicial branch, now will be unable to serve as officers on the boards of Registered Student Organizations. But members of the internal affairs committee will be able to serve as officers on RSOs.

Brown said the constitutional talks he took part in over the summer and the revisions he helped adopt did not reflect all that was wrong with USG. He said he would continue to campaign for his new government. He said fixing the number of seats without changing the government's structure did not mean responsive government would follow. "Everything needs to be done in order to make it work," Brown said. "It's not one thing that needs to be fixed over the another."