Bwog Social Media Editor and Representative for Seven Sisters Relations on Barnard SGA Idris O’Neill is giving the lowdown on the changing SGA constitution. 

SGA’s Constitutional Review Committee presented to last-last week’s Rep Council on the changing constitution and Bwog has compiled the most apparent changes. Constitutional Review is a process which occurs every three years at Barnard, intending to change the SGA body in accordance with the changing student body. Here are most things that are changing:

What’s Old:

  • The Appointments Committee is obsolete! It will be replaced by an ad hoc committee in the event that there is a mid-year vacancy. This committee will comprise of two members of the committee of the vacated spot, a member of the Inclusive Initiatives Committee, and two volunteers from two randomly selected committees.
  • Class council vice presidents will be removed from Rep Council in order to distinguish the roles between presidents and vice presidents. Vice presidents’ roles are now more clearly focused on events planning, while the presidents focus on policy.

What’s New:

  • There will be a new role for VP for Equity, the sixth role on Exec, who is then responsible for running community discussions on SGA, meeting with every representative, and sits on both the Committee on Inclusive Initiatives (which is chaired by the Rep for Inclusive Initiatives) and the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • The Rep for Campus Affairs role will now be divided into two: Campus Affairs and Student Development
  • University Senator now has a committee!

What’s Borrowed:

  • Campus Affairs will continue to work with ResLife, Public Safety, Events Management (which previously worked with the Rep for Information and Technology)
  • The new Rep for Student Development will handle the other two aspects of the former Campus Affairs role, Beyond Barnard and Alumni Relations, along with Transfer, International, and Commuter Student Interests, taken from the class council vice presidents

What’s Blue (minor changes):

  • The Rep. for Information and Technology needs to meet with the Director of Computer Science at Barnard
  • SGA is now held to the standard of the Barnard Honor Code
  • The Inclusive Initiatives must reach out to every affinity-based group

If you’re wondering what else has changed, read the proposed constitution and its more comprehensible version.

Vote on the proposed constitution by Feb 28th!

Correction, 11:57 PM: The Rep for Inclusive Initiatives does not sit on the Barnard Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

SGA Logo via Bwog Archive

Consteetooshun via Wikimedia Commons