By Louis Dennig
Staff Writer

In a nearly two year long effort to bring the student’s voice into the College Government the Representative Assembly (RA) has disbanded to make way for the Bates College Student Government (BCSG), which will take over power after ‘Super Tuesday’ elections on February 10. The Transition Oversight Board (TOB) is responsible for carrying out the elections for the new representative positions. Nominations will close on Saturday, February 7, at noon and campaigning will take place all this week.

The new BCSG, which has an almost entirely new constitution, will implement a number of changes to “get the student’s voice heard,” as James Fischer, TOB Chair said. First, the government will be split into two halves: the Legislative Branch called the Representative Assembly and an Executive Branch (the Executive Council).

The Legislative Branch will be made up of student representatives who have voting power in the BCSG. For every 50 people living in a given residential building, there will be one representative (buildings with less than 50 people will have one representative too). There will no longer be club representatives in student government, as there were past problems with attendance according to Fischer.

The Executive Branch will be made up of the following elected officials: President, Vice-President of Student Committees, and Vice-President of Student Clubs who will be elected by the recognized clubs on campus, each having one vote.

One of the largest changes is that the President of the student body and Chair of the RA are now two different people. Formerly, the Chair, who was also the student-elected president, ran meetings, could not speak his mind, and was supposed to be impartial. Now the Chair is a position to be elected by the Legislative Branch of the BCSG, while the President will remain elected by the student body.
There will be two different types of representatives from each graduating class. There will be two representatives from each grade with voting power, then there will be class co-presidents who’s job will be more clearly defined after the first set of eight are elected.

The new constitution was begun a year and a half ago after a committee to write the constitution was formed and students looked at the governments of many NESCAC schools including Bowdoin, Colby, Amherst, and Williams. This new constitution was originally voted on, on Dec. 1 and had to be approved by the student body and the RA. The student body passed the bill, but the RA failed to approve it. On Monday, Jan. 24, the RA re-voted and passed the bill, dissolving the RA.

RA members will now have to have an office hour every week and will have to follow exact procedure if they are going to miss a meeting. “Representatives can no longer take their government positions lightly, they are now accountable for being at the meetings,” said Tahsin Alam, member of TOB.

“One big misconception is that once the constitution is set in stone it’s final but you can work on it constantly to respond to new situations,” said Fischer. “This is the student’s chance to get excited about it and make it work,” said Katie Nolan, member of TOB.

To view the new constitution go to the BCSG website, www.bates.edu/RA. The name will be changed accordingly soon. “This is not going to fix everything it will just give the students the tools to fix everything,” said Fischer. Elections for all residential buildings will take place this week, and Executive Branch elections will once again take place on Tuesday, February 10.



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