After a procedural technicality required the General Assembly to revote on the new Student Confederation constitution, the document was approved with one abstaining vote and one against on Sunday.
"I'm glad the meeting went well and I'm looking forward to the student vote," SC President Polson Kanneth said. For the constitution to go into effect, it must get a two-thirds student vote on Dec. 8, The Eagle previously reported.
The new constitution would rename the GA the Undergraduate Senate and changes its composition to include five senators from each class, four at-large, two from the College of Arts and Sciences and one from all other schools. This would reduce the total number of GA members from 40 to 30.
The constitution approved at the last meeting on Nov. 14 created a senate composed of six senators from each class and six at-large, but parliamentarian Kyle Harding nullified that vote in a ruling, The Eagle reported online Nov. 20.
The ruling came in response to an inquiry from Kaitlyn Keegan, Class of 2005 representative in the GA. She noted that the GA agreed the adjournment time would be 7 p.m., yet voting extended past that time. Keegan asked Harding if this would render the constitutional vote null.
"I am forced to rule that this is sufficient to nullify the vote," Harding wrote in a Parliamentary Ruling. "As a special order set for a specific time may interrupt voting, the meeting was adjourned at 7 p.m., no further business could have transpired after that point. Voting was not completed," he wrote.
Harding noted that it was possible for GA members to propose new amendments before the revote.
Keegan said that she submitted this inquiry last Sunday after the meeting. She said she did not raise questions at the meeting because she "wasn't certain on the procedure of it. I also felt intimidated by the fact that [GA Speaker Richard] Bradbury had said several times that this needed to be passed. After thinking about it and speaking to Mr. Harding regarding filing official inquiries about it, we decided that it was in the best interest of the students to do so."
However, Ben Murray, chair of the Committee on Government Operations, said GA members had the opportunity during last Sunday's six-hour meeting to raise questions.
"[Bradbury] repeatedly asked if anyone had any concerns, several times [during the meeting]. [Keegan] still did not raise any concerns," said Murray, who wrote the new constitution.
Keegan announced her resignation at the meeting, citing time constraints. She said her decision to resign had nothing to do with the constitution.
Another inquiry submitted to Harding anonymously asked, "Is it appropriate for the speaker, an unbiased leader of the assembly, to solicit or threaten members to vote one way or the other? Is it out of order? Is it impeachable?"
Speaker Richard Bradbury told the assembly Nov. 14, "If we do not pass a constitution by the end of this meeting ... we will not exist. We have to get this through in some form or another," the Eagle reported Nov. 15. However, it is not clear if this is to what the inquirer referred.
Harding said that according to procedural rules "the Speaker shall remain impartial in all matters coming before the assembly." This is in accordance with a subsection of Robert's Rules of Order, which the GA uses to govern its meetings.
"Solicitation of votes would run contrary to the impartiality imposed on the speaker by the bylaws. As a violation of the bylaws solicitation of votes is clearly out of order," Harding said in the ruling.
Bradbury said that he was informing the GA that Student Activities had mandated that a new constitution pass. Student Activities has said that the SC will be dissolved if they do not prepare a new constitution for ratification this fall, to take effect next spring.
"Some people raised the issue with me that they felt I was intimidating them in my earlier comments. This was not me throwing my line in the sand for my own gratification, this was just a reiteration of a policy that has already been in effect, already been voiced, and already been raised for the past five months," Bradbury said.
Bradbury was emphatic about the need to pass a constitution, saying that it was not necessary for the constitution in its current form to pass, so long as one did pass, he said.
"People also seem to forget ... where I said that if we're getting to a point where it looks like the constitution might not pass, or people still have concerns, we're not done yet," he said. "We still have amendments to make, we still have debate to have and compromises to make."
At the meeting Kanneth passed out a signed statement in support of Bradbury.
"I am deeply disappointed by the actions of this anonymous person," Kanneth wrote. "No one should be afraid or threatened by Speaker Bradbury because he is someone who is always willing to listen, and always compassionate towards the needs of others."
GA member Meghan Mahoney also supported Bradbury in a statement to the press sent Nov. 19.
"[Bradbury] was stating a fact; that fact was that Student Activities required that we pass a new constitution or the Student Confederation would cease to function. This was and is not debatable," Mahoney said. "The Speaker has done a superior job in this office since the Assembly elected him last spring. He has always offered guidance and help to any member who needed it without taking any sides," she said.
Murray is against the "accusations."
"We all know that [the constitution] is supposed to pass. Saying that [Bradbury's comments were] an attempt to coerce people is completely unfounded," Murray said. "There's a huge factor of ridiculousness in these accusations."
At the meeting Bradbury thanked the GA and SC for their support and asked that the body move forward.
"The best thing to do is to get beyond this and to focus instead on what we can do."
Representatives Mahoney, Stephanie Massaro, Anna Drabant and J.D. Teitleman proposed an amendment to an amendment proposed by Carlos Ramirez, which determined the composition of the senate.
One of the biggest issues of contention was the hall reps," Mahoney said. "I figured, I think there need to be school reps because there are specific issues for different schools. ... As for hall reps, [the Resident Housing Association] is there."
Mahoney said that having hall representatives in the senate would further "turf wars" with RHA.
Students can vote on the new constitution Dec. 8 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Mary Graydon Center room 120, The Eagle reported Nov. 18.
