by Jake Carmin
Generally, when I write for the Crite, I write about national politics and presidential races. This time, however, I’d like to address students on a much more local issue: Associated Student Government (ASG). This year, the student senate has proposed an amendment to our constitution, and it needs student approval to pass. I’m writing now to support the passage of this amendment.
Why should readers trust me? I’m a veteran of student government, currently tied for the longest serving member. I am the only member who entered this semester with both senate and executive experience. In addition, I wrote the last constitutional amendment passed at CMU, which changed the operation of the judicial branch. My point is simple: this isn’t my first rodeo.
This year, I am the chair of the Fee Allocation Committee (FAC), which among other things, decides what student fees are spent on. The American Authors concert, the Outdoor Program, KMSA student radio and even the newspaper you’re reading are all funded by student controlled funds that each of us pays.
As FAC chair, I’ve made it my goal to keep student fees low while retaining Student Life’s impressive ability to develop our students’ professional skills outside the classroom. The pressure is high; Colorado’s higher education budget got slashed this year, and students are almost guaranteed to see a tuition hike. That means that my committee and I have worked hard to trim the fat out of some of our organizations’ budgets.
Student Body President Josh Dillinger and I believe if we are critical of other groups in the budgeting process, we must extend this level of scrutiny to our own organization. At the beginning of the semester, we proposed just under $11,000 worth of cuts to ASG.
The harsh reality of student government is that student fees are funding at least two executive positions that are redundant. I could very easily pick up the duties of one of these positions without increasing my time commitment to ASG. With unanimous support from veteran ASG executives, this proposal saves students money while preserving our ability to carry out our duties.
Unfortunately, there are many steps to cutting the student government’s budget. If FAC were to cut an organization, like the Crite, the financial details in their constitution would be automatically be changed, because the committee has oversight power. Yet FAC is underneath ASG’s umbrella; they lack the power to change the student constitution, which as of now dictates how much money each paid position in ASG gets.
Our solution? Remove the job and payment requirements from the constitution. If the amendment passes, the senate can pass a bylaw change reflecting the new budget changes. This makes our process infinitely easier; next time we want to change the structure of the executive cabinet, the senate, which already represents the voice of the students, can make these changes over the course of a few meetings, rather than needing to explain these dense legislative changes to already overburdened students.
Those who disagree with me believe that this amendment leaves ASG unaccountable; they think that these changes should be up to students. Yet, in my three years in the senate, the current structure is unaccountable. Fixing our problems has been nearly impossible; many discussions of structural changes have ended as soon as an amendment has been brought up. The reality is ASG members are students too and lack both the time and energy to campaign for two weeks on changes they only have to deal with for at most a few semesters. We have, as a body, refrained from making changes that benefit the student body, simply because it’s hard. This is a situation that incentivizes inactivity and complacency, and it’s unacceptable. Students deserve more from their government.
The flexibility this amendment offers student government has more than one benefit. In the short term, it allows us to get rid of paid positions we don’t need, to curb the overly large stipends that ASG executives (including me) receive, and to ask more of our student leaders. In the long term, it allows us to grow along with the university as our needs change.
If students need yet another reason to vote for this amendment, it’s worth noting we’ve also made some smaller updates, including adding sexuality to our anti-discrimination clause in the Student Bill of Rights, and removing gendered language from the document (in the previous version, the president was simply referred to as ‘he’, though we’ve had two female presidents in the last four years).
We need at least 776 votes (10 percent of full-time equivalent enrollment) in order for this amendment to pass. I urge all of you to vote in favor of its passage. It will give me the ability to fight to keep the cost of education low, and it will give ASG no excuse to sit on its hands.
You can vote for this amendment on OrgSync under the Elections page: https://orgsync.com/84792/forms/229297
