Nine students were appointed this week to the Student Union Constitutional Review Task Force, which will be charged with reviewing the Student Union Constitution.
The Student Union Executive Board appointed Director of Community Advocacy Jenna Brofsky ‘11; the Student Union Senate, by a two-thirds majority vote in executive session, elected Ziv Quad Senator Ryan J. Fanning ’11. In addition, Jessica Steinberg ’10 will be the secured non-media representative and Nipun Marwaha ’12 will represent competitive non-sports.
According to Article 8, Section 1 of the Student Union Constitution, “Every four years there shall be established an independent Constitutional Review Task Force charged with conducting a full review of all aspects of the Union, including the operation of clubs, Secured Organizations, and Union Government.”
Though only nine students have been appointed, the task force will consist of 16 students, each representing a constituency that is addressed in the Union Constitution.
Student Union President Andy Hogan will appoint six of the remaining members, including three alumni of the College of Arts and Sciences, one community advisor, and two members of the Brandeis community at-large.
Executive Senator Jenna Rubin ‘11 and Director of Communications Sidney Reuben ‘10 had originally planed on having the entire task force appointed by today because “the committee really needs a lot of time to [meet and review]” Rubin said.
Rubin and Reuben are still awaiting appointments from the Office of Student Affairs and the Intercultural Community as well as all of Hogan’s appointments.
When choosing appointments, each constituency took a different approach.
Secured non-media includes Waltham Group, Student Events and BEMCO. BEMCO chose not to be involved in the constitutional review process. When choosing a representative, Waltham Group and Student Events asked their members to vote for a representative. The directors of both groups then voted amongst themselves for their final appointment.
Rubin sent out an e-mail to all art and performance groups informing them of a meeting that was held Wednesday evening to choose their representative.
Only three people showed up and Andrew Litwin ’11 was interested in being the representative, so the other two students allowed him to be the appointment.
Director of Club Sports Ben White chose the club sport representative from the Council of Club Sports, which includes seven members.
Out of the seven members, one member, Benjy Cooper ’11, was interested in representing the club sports, so he was chosen.
Rubin, who will be scheduling the task force meetings, told The Hoot in an e-mail that no facet of the Union would have an influence over what the task force reviewed, and ultimately decided regarding the Constitution.
“It’s not up to the Senate and E-board to dictate what will be done or looked at. I expect that each member of the committee will come to the table with their own ideas,” Rubin said.
Marwaha plans to “make sure the groups are represented correctly according to what the ‘people’ want.”
Both Fanning and Brofsky felt that the security of the Racial Minority Senate Seat and the constitutional definition of that position would be a top priority of theirs. Fanning added that a change in Senate Monetary Resolution guidelines so that a greater majority of clubs and individuals would be allowed access to the Senate’s discretionary fund would be one of his personal initiatives.
