2025 Constitutional Amendments

Article I - Student Assembly

Establishing all incoming students as non-voting members of the Student Assembly. Anyone who has paid their enrollment deposit is automatically considered a voting member.

Article II, Section II - USG Membership

Increasing the potential number of members that can be on the Undergraduate Student Government. This will allow us to recruit more engaged and passionate individuals, regardless of their class or college association (or adjust to the population change of the college as a whole).

Article II, Section VI - Equal Opportunity Statement

Clarifying that the Undergraduate Student Government shall follow the most up to date Equal Opportunity Statement as defined by the university, and clarifying explicitly which parts it shall always follow.

Article III, Sections I & III - Elections

Adjusting Undergraduate Student Government elections to be:

- E-Board and Additional Ways and Means elections at the same time

- General Representatives and At-Large Representative elections at the same time

Article III, Sections IV & V - Bylaw Definitions

We are defining the election of Class Representatives to be specifically in the Bylaws in order to account for the potential variable number of USG representatives.

Article VI, Section V - Officer Vacancies

Establishes more specific guidelines for E-Board Vacancies, including who takes up each responsibility and how a new Executive Board member can be elected internally. This ensures that we do not enter a scenario where we cannot fill an Executive Board position if no one eligible is interested.

Specifically, if our requirement of 14 academic weeks cannot be met, then the Parliamentarian shall be allowed to open up internal elections to anyone interested on the USG body.

Article VII - Representative Duties

Moving the member participation requirements to the Undergraduate Student Government Bylaws. This allows us to increase or decrease the requirements as needed, and better handle extraneous situations (such as sickness, leave of absence, etc.)

Article VIII, Sections II & III - Parliamentarian Authority

Redefines the Parliamentarian, which is the "interpreter of the USG Bylaws and Constitution" to add additional clarifications and checks to keep things fair. This allows for members to vote against the Parliamentarian's decision and potentially strip them of their position if is deemed necessary. The Parliamentarian is the head of the Judiciary committee.

Article IX, Section I - Ways and Means

Redefining the Ways and Means committee membership, roles, and responsibilities. This is one of our largest changes, and involves EVERYONE into the budget allocation and hearing process if they so choose.

Instead of having Ways and Means be made up of all USG members, we are changing the structure to be the USG Treasurer (Chair) + 3 internally elected USG members + 2 externally Student Assembly members + 1 Graduate Student Government representative.

Any undergraduate student can be elected to the committee as one of the Student Assembly members, and will be a fully-active member as much as anyone else on the committee.

In addition, we are dispersing some of the responsibilities of the USG Treasurer onto the Ways and Means committee, including:

• The Ways and Means Committee now elects a Vice Chair (from any member) that will be responsible for minutes
• The Ways and Means Committee internally elects a Finances Manager, that will be the responsible person for requesting checks for reimbursement of ALL purchase requests
• The USG Treasurer shall now be responsible for keeping the committee on track, handling budget hearing planning, and managing USG's internal funds

We highly recommend you read the language of this amendment as closely as you can!

Article IX, Section II - Personnel

Redefines the Personnel committee and process, which is the committee that internally reviews Undergraduate Student Government representatives for their conduct or engagement with the organization. We've expanded the leeway that the committee has for sanctions and process, allowing the Personnel committee to dismiss charges if they don't feel it's necessary to bring forward sanctions (e.g. if a member misses 4+ office hours, but they've been sick / will make them up later on / another extraneous circumstance).

While the Personnel committee does not directly impact the Student Assembly, the way that we handle our member's conduct does. Please review the language for this amendment as best as possible.

Article IX, Section III - Judiciary

Adjusting the Judiciary committee--the committee responsible for reviewing the Executive Board, handling all interpretation disputes, and handling any Election complaints is making adjustments for its internal operation.

The Chief Student Affairs Officer (or their delegate) will be non-voting, except in when closing a meeting is necessary or when counting for quorum (e.g. they are required to be present).

This would be the committee that handles any election disputes for USG positions, led by the Parliamentarian.

Article IX, Section IV - Other Standing Committees

To allow USG better internal control over its structure, we've moved all other committee definitions to our Bylaws. This means that we are required to have a Personnel, Ways and Means, and Judiciary committee, but can decide what other committees we feel are best for the Student Assembly.

Cleaning Up Final Amendments

The last of these amendments are either adjustments to fit the previously mentioned amendments (in different sections), or various required amendments that keep our Constitution up to date with Student Leadership and Involvement:

• The fiscal year is defined as July 1st to June 30th
• Our Constitution must be reviewed by Student Leadership and Involvement
• Language clarifications to match the intention (any student can propose an amendment, special audit rules will be in the Bylaws)