The General Assembly has been working hard to make changes that will make the future Senate a more useful body for its members and the students they represent, despite dwindling membership, according to Speaker Richard Bradbury.
After elections are held Oct. 17-19, the GA, the Student Government's legislative arm, will change its name to the Undergraduate Senate and will begin operating under a new constitution with new rules.
The GA plans to spend its final few weeks completing constitutional by-laws, finalizing rules of debate and decorum for the Senate and re-allocating funds. Bradbury, who has been speaker of the assembly for a year and a half, says the GA's role is minimal and "realistically unimportant" in its final few weeks.
"We're just locking the door behind us as we go out," he said.
The body, which has positions for 40 representatives, will spend its last days struggling to reach a quorum in its meetings while still responsible for allocating thousands of dollars for SG activities. A quorum exists in the GA when half of its current members, plus one, are in attendance.
At the first scheduled meeting of the GA on Sept. 11, the legislature was unable to conduct official business because a quorum of its 14 members was not present.
An exact quorum of eight members was present at last Sunday's assembly meeting where the group unanimously allocated $2500 for additional Artemas Ward Week expenses.
The four SG executives have attended each of the meetings and plan to continue doing so. The executives are unable to vote in the GA but have full speaking rights.
The senate will have more direct involvement over policy issues that currently rest largely in the hands of the executives, Bradbury said. As it stands, "the GA exists separately from the executives unless we're trying to impeach them."
Fourteen seats remain filled, leaving the body at 32.5 percent of its full capacity. The other 26 members elected last fall have graduated, transferred, resigned or are studying abroad.
The senate will contain 30 seats, 10 fewer than the GA. The smaller size of the body is intended to provide more competition for the seats and to make members "more dedicated to doing the job they were elected to," Bradbury said.
The GA also faces a lack of diversity. Of the eight members at the last meeting seven were male, and only three females remain in the full body.
Charlie Biscotto, clerk of the GA, cited the lack of female representation as "the biggest issue that we as a body face and the SG in general."
Of the four elected officials in the executive branch, the only female is Vice President Leah Kreimer.
SG Secretary Joe Vidulich, said he encourages more women to run in the upcoming elections in order to bring more diversity to the body. Vidulich said the GA "has fallen to the wayside when it comes to women's and minority issues."
Although the remaining members of the small legislature are overwhelmingly white males, Biscotto said both sides of every issue presented before the body is discussed in formal debate.
The shrunken GA has some benefits, Biscotto said. The body will be more intimate and all the members will work more closely with one another. He said assemblymen are better able to communicate their legislative and policy ideas on an individual basis when they only have 12 members to contact instead of 40.
All candidates interested in running for the Senate must attend one of two scheduled Board of Elections' Information Sessions. The first session takes place today at 5:30 pm in McDowell Formal Lounge and the second will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 28 in Butler Board Room at 9:00 pm.
