The Solution to an Inefficient Student Council
The current Student Council (StuCo) is ineffective, unaccountable, and inefficient. The solution, however, is not to ask the faculty to fix our problems, but to take ownership ourselves and overhaul our Constitution. We need to reorganize and redirect the efforts of StuCo to best serve students.
This is easier than you might think. We have all the tools to do this ourselves. In fact, a new constitution is ready to be voted on and ratified. In this article, I’m going to break it down, and hopefully, with your help, we can make StuCo work for students once again.
The first major problem with the StuCo structure is the power imbalance, both inside and outside of the Executive Board. As it stands, the co-presidents hold all the cards. Control all StuCo initiatives. Strangle any ideas they are against. That needs to change.
The remedy for this is a two-branch system in which each branch has checks on the other. In the case of the proposed Constitution, that is a strong legislature, called the Assembly, and an Executive Board and committee structure. Now, this might sound very similar to what we have now, but its differences are key.
Direct Democracy
This Constitution will eliminate the dorm and day student representatives. As it stands, 100 representatives are elected out of a population of 1000 students, which is wildly over representative, and makes StuCo incredibly sluggish when anything needs to get done. In fact, less than half of those elected representatives even show up to StuCo meetings. The people elected to represent, on average, 10 people, are not doing so. The solution to this is simple, and it’s been discussed a lot. Direct democracy.
As it stands, around 60 people show up to meetings every week. About 40 are elected, and the rest are there because, unlike many of their elected representatives, they care about what is going on in StuCo. So, why not give these people a vote? Obviously, they would still come to meetings, and additionally, they would be able to vote on proposals that will actually improve student life on campus. In fact, more people would probably show up to meetings if they had a say in what was going on. So why not? There is no better representative for students except the students themselves. This new constitution will give any student a vote in the legislative actions of StuCo.
One of the main concerns with direct democracy though is efficiency. Practically, nothing would change. All votes would still be held during the actual StuCo meeting, which is the exact same as it is currently. The only difference would be that more people have the ability to vote. Direct democracy is the best way to ensure students who care are heard in StuCo.
Restructure the Executive
Another main hindrance of StuCo is the lack of initiative within the Executive. This is due to all the power being concentrated around the President, who is overburdened with everything from managing meetings to devising Vs policies and frequent meetings with Deans and faculty. This has to change. In a new system, the authority of the president would be spread over 3 other Executive Board roles; the JEDI Director, the Treasurer, and the Secretary.
With each having their own defined responsibilities, no one person would be burdened with all of the power and authority of StuCo. The President would still retain the directing of committees and communication with the administration, but much of their role would be directed solely to improving student life- the primary goal of any student government. Let’s look at what the other members of the Executive Board will do.
First of all, the JEDI Director. It is impossible to believe that StuCo can do anti-racist work better than the affinity groups such as ALES, LAL, AV, and others that do amazing work to advance anti-oppressive initiatives. Much of the time, StuCo takes the administration’s time and attention from these clubs that will do so much more with it. For this reason, the new constitution will create the position of JEDI director, which will have the duty of having an active understanding of anti-oppressive work on campus, and be able to coordinate the resources of StuCo to aid the work the affinity groups do.
Next, the Treasurer. As it stands currently, the Budget co-heads essentially are Executive Board level positions in all but name. Having them be elected would give much broader power to the student body in terms of the delegation of StuCo funds.
Finally, the Secretary. The Secretary will take on a lot of the administrative work the President is burdened with. This includes chairing the meetings of StuCo (essentially just making sure everyone talks in an orderly fashion), creating the agenda, and maintaining the records of StuCo.
In this Executive Board, no one person has a death grip on any aspect of StuCo, and therefore they can efficiently and effectively direct StuCo’s authority as a student government to fix crucial issues. However, fixing the committee structure is required before that is possible.
Combine the Committees
There are 10 committees, each of which has at least two committee heads, very few members, and a very specific mission. This needs to and can be changed. The new constitution will combine these 10 committees, most of which have the same or similar purpose, into just two: General Services, and Student Life. This will ensure that each committee has dedicated leaders and enough members to effectively create policy and initiatives to better life on campus.
The General Services Committee will encompass Technology, Public Relations, and Policy, to create a one-stop-shop for policy creation and the administration of StuCo. The Student Life Committee will combine Mental Health, JEDI, Recreation, and Dining Hall, all of which have the same goal of improving student life, though in different ways. By being under the same committee, it can encourage cooperation and again ensure that dedicated students are managing important projects.
And that’s it! With these three major changes, StuCo can be accountable by way of Assembly checks and oversight, efficient by spreading out duties, and effective by ensuring qualified and dedicated people are actually improving student life. If a Student Council that has the tools to make campus life better sounds good to you, I urge you to support the new Constitution.
You can read the Constitution in full at http://bit.ly/ANewStuCo
