Protecting Rights

Many people think that the student government is just a resume builder, but for me, it's about protecting the rights of the students (ALL of them) and communicating their needs and wants. This means that you often have to focus on the underdog in a situation and make sure that decisions and actions made are fair and proper. This is why the SGA has a Constitution and Constitutional Bylaws. It is also why we abide by Robert's Rules of Orders during our meetings. They're all meant to protect the rights of the minority.

I've only been back on SGA for less than a week and have already filed two Judicial Reviews.

The first review was filed on Friday, the day I was appointed. Apparently, Dmitry Goncharov, a Representative at Large, had the Joint Session meeting where he was appointed transcribed by a third party. (We do have our own Graduate Assistant, or clerk, that does all of our minutes and records all of our meetings.) He submitted only a portion of this transcription to the clerk Thursday afternoon before the last Joint Session meeting on on March 9th and requested that it be added to the minutes. However, members of the body were not made aware of this addition until the day of the meeting and were only given 5 minutes to review this lengthy document. No receipt or certificate of authenticity was provided. Our rules clearly state that all new business be submitted to the clerk by noon the day before the meeting. Without even having read the transcription, I could immediately tell that something about this wasn't fair. In my opinion, the addendum violated the statute that requires all new business to be submitted to the clerk by noon the day before and put the body at risk because they were not given sufficient time to review the transcription. It violated their rights. And, in my opinion, it was an act of disrespect, but unfortunately, there aren't any legal rules against that. Therefore, I submitted a Judicial Review to the Judicial Board of the SGA.

I filed my second Judicial Review today. This review was regarding the Media Fee vote. The vote was split by only 9 votes, less than 1% of the entire votes collected. Therefore, I have asked the Judicial Board to review the Constitution in regards to recalling the vote or submitting the referendum for a special election that would be held before the end of this semester. Since there isn't any significant difference between the number that voted yes and the number that voted no, the results of the vote are very inconclusive. Most likely, it will require a petition and special election.

Being a public official often means having to put yourself and your friendships aside to protect the rights of those you represent. All too often, people get wrapped up in their own lives and forget those they represent. We see this all the time in the federal government, and it is just as true in your local Student Government Association. It's up to each individual to stand up for what's right and to question what they don't think is fair.