Class of 2013 loses council member

The Class of 2013 was forced to give up a newly appointed member of their class council recently, due to a constitutional violation.

The council wanted to add a "Community Relations" member to help them get feedback from students in their class concerning activities and fundraisers. This person would also ask students what they want to see from the council, and put together ideas for future events.

Lyndsay Robinson '14, Secretary of Internal Procedures, said, "According to the SGA Constitution, the class councils can only have three people appointed to their committee, which the Class of '13 already had."

Joe Rispoli '13, Class '13 Vice-President, expressed his feelings about the matter during a recent SGA meeting saying, "…our class had a sad week."

While the SGA constitution does have specific guidelines about this issue, the Class of '13 insists they were not trying to defy the rules. They wanted to include an interested student on the council.

Class of '13 President Joe Gill said, "Our intentions were good, but there is no denying we were wrong."

Some sparks flew when Rispoli tried to summarize a potential bill that would allow the Class President to appoint council members at his or her discretion. He was quickly told that, according to the SGA Constitution, without hard copies of a formal bill, he was not able to talk about it.

During a class council meeting, Senator Mark Samardzic '13 said, "There will be much debate about this bill so we need to be ready to go because we are changing the constitution."

While Robinson seemed open to the idea of making the change, she also said the position needs a little clarity.

"It's not exactly a position that could be created because that is the class senators' job. They would have to make it clear how they are different," she said.

Robinson also added that additional council members could create problems for the council as a whole.

She said, "It's harder to manage and increases the possibility of absences at meetings, and people being appointed, but not actually participating."

Robinson said they are other ways for students to participate without having a titled position on the council.

"Councils are open to the student body," she said, "and they can speak and be active members at those meetings."

The Class of '13 Council sees the benefit, however, of having official members of the council.

Gill said, "The more people that come in, the better our ideas are."

Samardzic added, "We [the council] have people from all over the place. We know that we know our class."

Gill also said, "I'm very proud of our council and I will have their backs 100 percent of the time."

The bill concerning new council members is expected to be presented at an SGA meeting this month.