The Southern Utah University Student Association held a short senate meeting on Tuesday to discuss amendments to the SUUSA constitution.
Chief Justice Colton Smith proposed making the constitutional amendments effective for the upcoming school year.
Smith suggested moving details of the SUUSA organization found in the constitution to their governing bylaws instead. Specifics such as grade point average requirements and attendance policies are “not necessarily something that needs to be constitutional,” Smith said.
Moving these “things from the constitution that we felt were better in the government bylaws” will make it easier to change them in the future, according to Smith.
Another amendment discussed was the combining of the three branches of Student Involvement & Leadership, which are SUUSA, the Student Programming Board and STIL Marketing, to all be part of SUUSA.
The current SPB president and executive marketing director positions will be renamed to the vice president of programming and the vice president of marketing, respectively. These positions will be part of SUUSA’s executive council.
“They’ll be able to vote in executive council meetings and have the full rights and privileges of being a member of the executive council,” Smith said.
The last amendment is an update to SUUSA’s impeachment process. After needing to impeach a senator during the 2018-2019 school year, Smith realized that “there were major shortfalls within that process.”
The new amendment describes two procedures: an impeachment procedure for officers to be removed from their office when in violation of not fulfilling their duties, and a recall procedure for other members of the senate to remove someone from office.
The senate voted on these amendments to the SUUSA constitution, which passed unanimously.
SUUSA is hosting a Meet Your Representatives event on Feb. 17 from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Students can enjoy free pizza and ask questions to the current senators and representatives.
Application packets to run for a SUUSA position are available in the STIL office or in the Michael O. Leavitt Center and are due on March 9.
Story by: Tori Jensen
reporter@suunews.net