The AU student body will decide if the Student Government comptroller and secretary will be appointed rather than elected positions in a referendum during the SG elections next week.
The motion to send the referendum passed in the Senate with the required two-thirds vote on Sept 21. The student body will vote on the proposed changes during the Sept. 29 and Sept. 30 elections. A two-thirds majority of voters will be needed to pass the amendment.
The referendum states, “To have a successful Comptroller it is imperative that he/she has a background in fiduciary affairs ... To have a successful Secretary it is imperative that he/she has some sort of background in communications and/or marketing.”
The referendum does not specify how the two executives will be appointed, only that they will be appointed instead of elected. However, current SG bylaws offer some guidance, according to SG Secretary Colin Meiselman. The SG president has the power to appoint a secretary or comptroller if the executive resigns, according to Article II sections iii and iv of the SG constitution.
The referendum on the ballot will state:
“The Comptroller and Secretary of the Student Government are positions that require specific skill sets in order to be done successfully. Do you support making these positions appointed?”
A student who votes yes will vote for the positions to be appointed; a student who votes no will vote for the positions to remain elected.
The senators who voted against the amendment in the meeting voiced concerns about student rights and the unspecified procedures for appointing the executives.
“I’m not in support of [the bill] because the student body has a right to vote for their executives,” said College of Arts and Sciences Sen. Amanda Silva.
Sen. for the Class of 2012 Carmyn Rios requested a statement she prepared be read since she could not attend the meeting. Her statement said she feels it is important to keep positions elected in the SG, especially in the executive branch.
Sen. at Large Jared Alves, who proposed the bill, said making the positions appointed would ensure stability and consistency as well as increase the pool of qualified applicants.
Two comptrollers and a secretary have resigned in the past four years, he said.
“I think the point here is that we’ve had sort of a bad track record of comptroller and secretary,” said Sen. for the Class of 2010 Josh Rothman. “I think the reason is because people run for those spots just to sort of run for those spots.”
SG President Andy MacCracken said the bill addresses many concerns he has since the nature of the positions does not require campaign promises.
“The comptroller doesn’t say ‘I’m going to check finances better than the last guy,’” MacCracken said. “They don’t have a vision like the president.”
The positions are internal positions, MacCracken said. Elections may also deter candidates who may not like the spotlight that comes with elections, he said.
Sen. at Large Mark Bittner agreed, saying candidates for the comptroller and secretary positions seem to think they are more visionary positions, but when they are elected they realize they have to do the grunt work for student government.
Since the positions require specific skills, appointing the two executives will lead to a more qualified pool of candidates, Alves said.
The SG bylaws do not specify requirements for the two positions, but Student Activities encourages the comptroller candidates to have taken ACCT-240 Principles of Financial Accounting, Meiselman said.
Class of 2010 Sen. Steve Dalton said the president and vice president positions also require a set of skills.
“Do we say the president then has to take ‘Public Administration 527’ because he oversees a branch?” Dalton asked. “Does the vice president have to take ‘Event Planning 206’?”
Dalton said he was not in favor of the bill since it did not outline how the executives would be appointed. If it is passed, there is no backing out, he said.
“If the referendum is passed, that’s done, that’s finished, we have to do it then,” he said. “The president could appoint two cronies and we could have just as many problems if not more than we’ve seen already.”
He said he trusts the students enough to vote for the two executives, and expressed concern that an appointed comptroller or secretary could have stronger ties to the president than to the students.
“I’d be concerned if the president appoints a comptroller and the comptroller feels invested in the president,” Dalton said. “So if there’s a couple of ‘i’s’ that aren’t dotted and a couple of ‘t’s’ that aren’t crossed, the comptroller will say ‘I owe my position to the president and it’s OK.’”
If the SG trusts the students, the members could trust them to allocate the power to decide how the positions are filled, Meiselman said.
You can reach this staff writer at landerson@theeagleonline.com.
