On Tuesday, you will have the opportunity to vote on a new SGA constitution. This constitution reflects over 300 hours of work from a dedicated group of students who sought the advice of their fellow students and many administrators across campus. This constitution renews student self-government and provides opportunities for all students.
For the record, I have been an independent for two years and an IFC greek student for two years. I hold no campus political affiliation. This diverse background is one of the reasons that SGA President James Fowler asked me to chair the Constitution Revision Committee.
From the first CRC meeting in late August until the proposed constitution was submitted to the SGA Senate in early January, all of the CRC’s decisions were guided on four over-arching ideals: accountability, functionality, inclusivity, and transparency. As a nonpartisan committee, composed of three greek students, three independent students and myself, the CRC constantly returned to these four ideals when discussing changes to the SGA constitution.
The CRC developed consensus decisions. As ideas were proposed for the new SGA constitution, the committee’s rules required that all members agree on any changes before the ideas were included. The composition of the CRC sometimes made reaching this consensus difficult, but the committee worked together, crafting a document that reflects their deliberation and reason.
The new SGA constitution incorporates ideas originally found on this editorial page. While we did not uniformly adopt them all, these ideas sparked constructive conversations within the committee, showing us all that any student with a voice can truly effect change in their student government.
The CRC also sought input from every corner of campus. Throughout the fall semester, I met personally with leaders from organizations like the Panhellenic Association, National Pan-Hellenic Council, NAACP, Residence Hall Association, Mallet Assembly and many other student groups to seek their opinions. Using these outstanding students as an advisory board, the proposed constitution reflects many of the ideas they shared with our committee.
Our SGA is among the best—if not the best—student governments in the Southeastern Conference. If you do not believe me, just compare our SGA to our counterparts at other universities. The new SGA constitution maintains the strongest elements of our SGA’s traditions, which have driven it to excel.
I was a student last year when “Pasadena-gate” erupted. I was angry, too. When James Fowler ran for office last spring, he promised to have the most accountable, inclusive, and transparent student government that this campus has ever seen. This constitution will codify that promise. This constitution will create a post-Pasadena student government, modernizing the SGA and providing the accountable and transparent student government students demand.
This new constitution offers our campus the chance to renew student self-government. With this constitutional referendum, we have the opportunity to create a student government that is accountable, functional, inclusive, and transparent. Do not waste this opportunity. Together, we can provide opportunities to all of campus. I ask for your “Yes” vote on Feb. 1.
Ryan Sprinkle is a senior majoring in economics and the SGA attorney general and chair of the Constitution Revision Committee.
