A second amendment, meant to toughen the requirements for amending the constitution by student petition, passed easily on the floor of the senate but AAS President Michael Simmons '06 vetoed the motion Tuesday evening in order to encourage another week of discussion.
The first amendment, proposed originally by Senator Jessica Rothschild '06 last semester, would reduce the number of senators per class from eight to six and open up a number of college committee seats to members of the student body at large. "I believe in democracy and allowing the student body to have a more direct voice in College policies," Rothschild later said. "Unfortunately, [because of] fear of losing their positions, senators chose to vote in their own self-interest."
Most senators, though, questioned the need for simultaneously reducing senate size and opening committee seats. Many also raised the issue of the need for three instead of two separate elections for the three potential kinds of elected positions: the executive board, the senate and at-large committee seats. The senate altered the constitutional amendment to reflect these concerns, but ultimately voted the motion down decisively.
Debate was colored throughout by the impression that the amendment in its original language would come to a student body referendum in spite of any decisions by the senate. Current constitutional procedure allows individual students to put an amendment to college-wide referendum with a petition signed by 10 percent of each class.
Rothschild left the meeting before her intentions could be clarified, but was seen circulating a petition in Valentine Dining Hall on Tuesday.
With this in mind, Senator Emily Silberstein '06 proposed a constitutional amendment stiffening the requirements for the petitioning process. "This debate has brought up some good points," she said, "but it's shown how a fundamental flaw in our constitution means anyone can bring a question before the student body."
Silberstein's proposed amendment would require signatures from 15 percent of each class, an open meeting of the student body and an opinion piece in The Student before an amendment could reach referendum by student petition.
Senator Avi Das '07 expressed the issue many senators saw with the current petitioning process requiring only signatures from 10 percent of each class. "It's not hard to get 160 signatures and get people to click a box without reading it," he said, "It's very easy to get a pirate motion on the ballot. A rogue band of students can come together and demolish student government as we know it."
The senate approved the motion by a margin of 22-2, putting the question to student referendum.
Tuesday evening, though, Simmons vetoed the amendment, keeping the issue off the ballot next Tuesday. The AAS constitution gives the body's president seven days to veto any motion, which the senate can then pass again with a two-thirds majority. "I slept on it and gave it to today," he explained, "It's not going to have any sweeping impact, I just think the matter needs more discussion."
The amendment, passed this week by an overwhelming majority, should easily receive the two-thirds approval necessary to overcome Simmons's veto next week unless there's a significant swing in voting. Furthermore, the measure would have had no impact on Rothschild's amendment, given that the two would have appeared concurrently on next Tuesday's ballot.
What will definitely appear on the ballot next Tuesday, March 14, is the question of this year's Spring Formal. The senate approved an initial $11,080 of funding for the event this semester, requiring the approval of the student body. Any allocation of funds in excess of $10,000 requires majority approval on a special referendum.