A year from now, the Student Government Association’s (SGA) organization structure could look very different. That is, if Christian Toczko has anything to say about it.
The senior parliamentarian and chair of the Senate Nominations and Elections Committee introduced six new plans at SGA’s Joint Senate meeting Monday night that would completely restructure student government at Northeastern to more closely resemble the federal government’s three branches. Toczko said plans were imperative because SGA’s current structure does not define separation of powers, and students need to regain their power.
“The Senate, the executive board and the president are treated like one branch,” Tozcko said. “What do you think of when you think of SGA? This single hierarchy.”
Currently, the separation of powers between the branches is extremely limited. The Senate committees are chaired by executive board members.
“I want the executive board to get ... away from Senate. Don’t have them chair committees and have them chaired by people in Senate. Like they should be,” Toczko said.
Missing from the SGA’s present structure is the US government’s third branch, the judiciary. Northeastern’s judicial branch is currently run by the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution.
Appeals in SGA have “never had a written outline of how to be processed, it was simply implied they were filtered through the President,” Toczko said.
Decisions on grievances related to the Students Activities Fee (SAF), a $109 per student allocated to student programming, have been outsourced to the administration. SGA is taking steps toward giving students power over their money.
“Keep the student organization within student jurisdiction. This administration does not need to be involved,” said Matt Soleyn, a third-year Senate member and former Resident Student Association Vice President for Housing Services.
This problem is relieved with the new restructure, Toczko said.
“It’s in the language that the Budget Review Committee’s appeals go to the dean of campus life apparently. However with the new restructuring, and the current language, this position doesn’t even exist anymore,” Toczko said.
While SAFs are being processed by an unidentified administrator, SGA plans to implement a streamlined Judicial Branch to address these needs, Toczko said.
Tozcko proposed an amendment to create a judicial branch with six justices, to be appointed by the president and approved by the Senate.
Soleyn suggested a seventh justice at the meeting Monday, though the amendment failed.
“The concept of an extra justice would be useful so in case there is a two way tie, the court can make a legitimate statement,” Soleyn said. “If you have a tie, whatever you are doing fails unless the chair approves.”
That chair is the creator of the amendment himself: Toczko.
“Ideally a chair wouldn’t have to have that power,” Soleyn said.
Toczko said the thought process behind the structure is parallel to the Supreme Court because of the maintenance of a two-thirds quorum. “I’d like see things moving.”
While SGA focuses on creating a three-branched government to effectively reflect the American government’s structure of separation of power, a motion to amend the fact that executives will also remain senators has yet to be mentioned.
“We still need ample to time to hash it all out, and to see how it’ll work,” Soleyn said.
SGA talks structure changes
Published: Thursday, November 19, 2009
Updated: Thursday, November 19, 2009
4 comments
I would like to also clarify that these changes will not occur overnight, but it will be asked that the Budget Review Committee, Student Affairs board, and Senate Nominations and Elections Committee review their governing documents and make the necessary changes to send associated appeals to this Board. The justices of this appeals Board will be properly cross trained and made familiar with the processes of the BRC, SAB, and SNEC.And in response to the article's remark "That chair [of the new Board, the Association's Parliamentarian,] is the creator of the amendment himself: Toczko". I'll probably be graduated by the time the Board is ready to take off. But thank you :)If anyone has any additional questions my contact is available here [ www.sga.neu.edu/committees/snec/contact.html ].