(Photo: Emily Schneider)
By: Ellie Mulligan, Staff Reporter
A new RUSGA constitution was voted into effect on February 27th. This new constitution brings with it plenty of new changes, which are meant to provide a more democratic approach to the voice of the student body here at Regis. Though some students feel intimidated by the idea of getting involved in student government, the new constitution hopes to make the channel of communication from the student body to the administration much smoother.
In the past, a President and Vice President have been the two most powerful positions on RUSGA. However, the new constitution, written by current President John Casillas and Vice President Nick Stofa not only abolishes the Vice President position, but divides its’ current power into four different roles: the Vice President of Clubs and Organizations, the Vice President of Social Justice and Diversity, the Vice President of Involvement, and the Vice President of Programming.
Together, these Vice Presidents will handle everything from Ranger Week to voicing the opinions of the unheard and underserved voices here on campus. By dividing the Vice President position into four roles, elected by popular vote, students have a better chance of making their voices heard among their peers.
According to Freshman senator Jake Williams, “[The new Vice President positions] will take the current Vice President position so that they can work closely with the President; these people will be equipped with members of their specialized workforce so that RUSGA as a whole will be made more democratic.”
Though the elimination of the Vice President position is the most notable change, the new constitution contains many more updates that reach beyond than the legislative branch. More specifically, one of the branches itself will be eliminated from RUSGA’s duties. As it was, RUSGA had an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. With the new constitution, this judicial branch is no more.
The duties of the J-Board will be moved to administration, and the chief justice will no longer be governed under RUSGA. This change was simply motivated by necessity; both the chief justice and J-Board were seeing low numbers of cases. In order to make the judicial process more efficient for students, the responsibility was moved.
Above all, the new constitution aims to make RUSGA, and the Regis campus as a whole, more communicative and democratic. It will be up for recount on March 20th, but it stands in effect as of now. This constitution, as well as those who worked to write it, hope to create and develop new relationships between the students both on and off-campus and the administration.