The future of student government at Binghamton University will be put to a campus-wide vote Wednesday, and advocates on all standpoints of the issue are making a final push to get students on their side.
A ballot referendum will determine whether BU students would support an overhaul of the SA constitution that could change the way students interact with their government. Students will also vote in run-off elections for two Student Association Executive Board positions: vice president for academic affairs and vice president for programming.
The SA government’s responsibilities include advocating to the administration on behalf of students and distributing money from a more than $2 million budget to student groups, as well as campus services including OCCT, Harpur’s Ferry and the SA Programming Board, which brings concerts to campus.
If more than 50 percent of students vote for the proposed constitution, the existing constitution would be replaced, and the SA government would have student approval to become incorporated.
But some, like SA Assembly Representative George Hadjiconstantinou, are wary of the process by which the constitution was created.
“It was rushed,” Hadjiconstantinou said, pointing out that the constitutional overhaul was introduced just six weeks ago.
He said he was also concerned that the initial draft was composed by a few SA leaders and not by an approved constitutional committee, as was the case for constitutional changes in previous years.
“I would characterize it as something that … didn’t have the input of everyone it should have,” Hadjiconstantinou said.
But Assembly Speaker Randal Meyer, who has been a major advocate for the changes, said that constitutional drafting unfolded this way for a reason.
“You don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen,” Meyer said.
He added that the constitution had gone through several later drafts in response to student input and that the final version had been approved by the Assembly, the SA’s legislative body.
“This document is not a product of six people in a back room,” he said.
Hadjiconstantinou also expressed concern that the student body is not sufficiently informed about the constitution.
SA President Jared Kirschenbaum expressed similar concerns.
“I find it troubling there have been a negligible amount of students who have requested [copies of] the constitution,” he said.
Kirschenbaum, who has also been a strong advocate for the changes, said that between 30 and 55 students have requested a copy of the changes at one point or another, but that no student or organization other than Pipe Dream had requested a copy of the final version that students will vote on in Wednesday’s referendum.
He said he was also worried about the information on which students would be basing their judgements.
“Are these … people proficient in the constitution?” he said of students who plan to vote Wednesday. “Or are they relying on other people? Or are they taking other peoples’ words as truths?”
SA officials on both sides of the issue created Facebook groups this week to rally support for their cause.
A group of students including Assembly Representatives Madeline Stolow and Hadjiconstantinou created the group “VOTE NO on the Proposed Student Association Constitution.”
Hadjiconstantinou said he never thought he’d be defending SA’s current structure, and he admitted that the government could still use some changes. But he said the process by which the constitution was made troubled him.
He said he was also concerned that the bylaws for the new government would be drafted after the constitution would pass. This could be a way for the SA to decide significant elements of how the government works without a campus-wide vote, he said.
In response, Kirschenbaum, Meyer and SA Executive Board members Jenna Goldin and Daniel Rabinowitz created the group “VOTE YES to the Proposed SA Constitution.”
As of publication, the “VOTE NO” group had 194 members who said they were “attending” and the “VOTE YES” group had 72.
The new government would consist of a Representative Council and a Judicial Board. The Representative Council, which would be composed of Executive Board members and elected representatives, would also have three sub-councils responsible for drafting legislation.
The Council would have to approve legislation created in the sub-councils before it could pass, but it could not create its own legislation. The Judicial Board would hear and rule on major grievances made against the SA or student groups, though appeals of these decisions would go to the SA’s lawyer.
The vote will be held from 1 to 7 p.m. in community dining halls and the University Unions.