USG Senator suggests new referendum voting system

Sen. Sabrina Enriquez proposed adding referendums to allow the student body to vote on student policies at the Undergraduate Student Government Senate meeting on Tuesday. The Senate also voted to change its bylaws and the election code, and discussed USG staff appointments.

As proposed by Enriquez, the process for passing a referendum would start with proposing a change to the associate director of elections. USG’s judicial council would then vote to determine the proposal’s constitutionality, after which the issue would be opened up to a University-wide vote. If the proposal gains the support of at least one-tenth of the undergraduate student body, the Senate would need to reach a two-thirds majority. If a referendum aims to amend the Student Senate Constitution, it must be passed by a majority of students.

“Referendums can address major issues if the entire student body is on board with it. I think it’s really important that we have it in our bylaws,” Enriquez said. “I think it’s actually a shame that our bylaws don’t allow the entire student body to make change within this University, and frankly just about every other university has it.”

In response to Sen. Daniel Newman, who questioned if there was any mechanism to force the administration to listen to the results of the referendum, USG Vice President Austin Dunn said that the administration would not be doing their jobs if they ignored the opinion of the united student body.

The Senate also voted on the changes to the elections code and bylaws proposed in last week’s Senate meeting. The bylaw changes, which passed, included changing the title of “associate director of elections and recruitment” to “director of elections,” as well as other cosmetic changes.

Regarding the changes to the elections code, the proposed “nine strikes” rule to disqualify any candidate who commits nine elections code violations was voted on separately from the other changes. The other changes included clarifying that candidates for Senate could not run in conjunction with presidential candidates and removing the necessity for Senators to represent and reside in specific constituencies. The Senate voted to approve the other changes.

Sen. Tiffany Lian raised concerns that the nine-strikes policy would allow too many violations of the elections code before disqualifying a candidate, and said that she would prefer to keep the current system of major and minor strikes. Sen. Emily Lee concurred, also saying that having the elections commission impose strikes might be too subjective.

Lian and Sen. Tyler Matheson discussed making amendments to the strike system, but did not have time to draft their proposals during the meeting.

Katherine Lee, the director of elections, said that she had communicated with the chief justice of the judicial branch, who said that he would be willing to help interview elections commission candidates to ensure impartiality.

However, several Senators pointed out that there was no formal commitment made, and tabled the proposed nine-strikes policy until next week to allow time for the chief justice to respond.

The directors of various USG branches also presented their proposed hires for still-vacant staff positions. Only one position, commuter liaison, remains vacant. Regarding the appointment for Greek liaison, who is from a Greek house overseen by the Pan-Hellenic Council, Enriquez suggested exploring whether multicultural Greek councils could become more involved.

Enriquez also proposed extending applications, given that the commuter liaison position is still vacant, but the other Senators agreed that the staff should be able to start working as soon as possible. The appointments will be voted on next week.