Student Body President
Ryan M. Eller kicked back to the senate an amendment to the Student
Government Association Constitution concerning student petitions
last Tuesday.
Eller, while not vetoing the amendment, said technical problems
in getting online voting set up made it impossible to vote on the
amendment by the original dates. Eller said there were concerns
about a lack of research accompanying the bill.
The amendment, which lowered the amount of signatures necessary
to petition the senate from 1,300 to 100, was scheduled to be voted
on by students Nov. 12-14.
“The underlying reason I had to send the legislation back to
student senate was because it was unfeasible for computer services
to get [the voting] done in that time frame; I had no choice but
to send this back to senate. It wouldn’t have mattered if I
loved or hated it,” Eller said Friday. “I have not really
taken a stance on the amendment anyway. What I did take a stance
on was the amount of research behind this legislation. I request
a packet of research with every piece of legislation; I was not
provided any research with this amendment so I question the bill’s
ability to get past [the administration].”
Off-campus senator Justin W. Moore, one of the authors of the amendment,
disagreed.
“They never asked me or [Bayard] for a packet of research.
The senate certainly felt it was well researched, as well as the
Rules Committee,” Moore said Friday. “We saw a desire
from students to have this done, and even though that isn’t
quantifiable in the technical sense, we think that students should
have been able to vote on it. They certainly didn’t show any
reservations about the research beforehand.”
“The reason that tech support couldn’t get the bill up
in time is because Eller sat on the bill for two weeks. Had he signed
off on it any earlier, students would be voting on the amendment
right now,” Moore said.
“Constitutionally, the President has 10 school days to sign
off on a bill; that’s something that writers of legislation
need to be aware of,” said Dino DiBernardi, director of the
Center for Student Involvement and Leadership. “A referendum
must be held no less than 21 days after the bill is passed. By [Bayard
and Moore] choosing the shortest amount of turn-around time, tech
support simply couldn’t get to it in a week and a half.”
Off-campus senator H. Dustin Bayard, the other author of the amendment,
could not be reached for comment at press time.
Because the dates specified in the bill are no longer feasible,
a version with new dates will have to be reintroduced to the senate.
While the amendment was given a favorable recommendation by the
Rules Committee and passed by two-thirds of the senate, Rules Chair
Kevin M. Turner and Vice President Ezell P. Williams had expressed
concerns about the research to Eller.
“My only reservation was that there was no research sent to
me when the bill was passed,” Williams said Friday. “A
lot of our pieces were sent back last year and nothing was ever
done with them when they went to the administration, and it was
because they weren’t researched.” |
