The Associated Students of Madison voted in favor of a new constitution Wednesday night in a unanimous 22-0 vote.
ASM passed only one amendment to the constitution Wednesday night prior to the vote. The draft constitution required a three-fourths vote by senators to remove the president, vice president and justices. Members voted to lessen the requirement to two-thirds.
I thought we would have had more disagreement,"" said Jeff Wright, chair of the ASM Constitutional Committee, which drafted the document. ""But, I'm pleased that people are excited about what this is going to do for the student body.""
Some members said ASM should put off the vote until students were more educated and more voices were heard. But other members argued there have been many opportunities, including 15 listening sessions.
""When is enough, enough?"" Ben Carter, member of the Constitutional Committee said. ""If we don't do this now, we waste momentum; we bleed the process out and we die.""
ASM voted to have a special election in February for the student body to vote on the constitution, but Student Council must approve the constitution a second time before a student referendum can proceed. Although the Student Elections Commission chair may veto the special election, Wright said there would be enough votes to override it.
Aside from drafting the constitution, the Constitutional Committee has been working on bylaws.
""The constitution tells the 'what' of the government, and the bylaws tell the 'how,'"" Chair of Student Services Finance Committee and committee member Kurt Gosselin explained.
Bylaws will be made public before students vote on the constitution in February, but will not be on that ballot. Next year's student government will have to approve the bylaws before they go in effect.
At a Constitutional Committee meeting Sunday, the committee decided to move appointments for the financial committee into bylaws.
The committee also debated whether the constitution should require a minimum amount of time to notify affected groups ahead of changes to the financial code. The committee decided not to include such language in the constitution, but to include a two-month time requirement within the text of the financial code.
With the timeline in bylaws, the two-month requirement is easier to change than if it were in the constitution. This worried many student groups who came before ASM Wednesday and asked Student Council to put the two-month timeline in the constitution. Student representatives of GSSF groups threatened to mobilize voters to vote down the constitution without the two-month guarantee. However, after some debate, members voted down the amendment and decided it would remain in bylaws.
