Due to an accidental misinterpretation of SG Bylaws, a proposed referendum seeking to change two executive positions from elected to appointed, will not appear on today’s SG election ballot.
The amendment, proposed by Senator at Large Jared Alves, sought to make the offices of comptroller and secretary appointed positions. However, after Speaker of the Senate Anthony Dunham missed the deadline to notify Student Activities, the proposed amendment was left off the ballot.
After the bill passed the Senate, Dunham mistakenly referred the bill to SG President Andy MacCracken for his signature. The president is required to sign most bills passed by the Senate, but constitutional amendments do not require MacCracken’s approval, according to Dunham. While Dunham erroneously waited for MacCracken to sign — or veto — the bill, he missed the deadline to have Student Activities place the referendum on the ballot.
Student Activities had expressed displeasure that the SG had not consulted them before voting on the amendment, Dunham said.
“Such an amendment, in the view of Student Activities, should have been talked about with Student Activities,” he said. “You have the logistical reason [missed deadline] and the content reason as to [why the amendment will not be on the ballot].”
Student Activities works with the SG and helps them manage their approximately $500,000 budget, Dunham said. Because this amendment would directly affect the primary overseer of the SG budget — the comptroller — Student Activities believed it was important that the process be discussed more thoroughly, he said.
A representative from Student Activities could not be reached at the time of publication.
The amendment can either be referred to the student body through a special election, or it can be reintroduced by the newly-elected Senate and put on the election ballot in the spring semester. If this were the case, the changes to the SG Constitution would have no effect until spring 2011, after the terms of the comptroller and secretary elected in spring 2010 ran out.
The referendum on the ballot would have read: “The Comptroller and Secretary of the Student Government are positions that require specific skill sets in order to be done successfully. Do you support making these positions appointed?” Two-thirds of student votes would have been necessary to pass the referendum, The Eagle previously reported. Class of 2010 Sen. Steven Dalton, who does not support the amendment, said he was still angry that the amendment would not be on the ballot.
He said he believes that Student Activities is purposefully dragging their feet because they were not consulted on the bill.
“It is a slap in the face to people who put a lot of time into trying to better their school by becoming involved in Student Government,” Dalton said. “[Student Activities] doesn’t like that they weren’t consulted about this … They make the actual U.S. government bureaucracy look like a Ford assembly line before they went bankrupt.”
SG elections take place from 9 p.m. Tuesday, till 5 p.m. Wednesday. Students can vote on the elections by logging into their my.american.edu account.
You can reach this staff writer at cszold@theeagleonline.com.
