By Kayla Perry

The SGA has decided it’s time to “revamp” the organization’s 20-year-old constitution.

The constitutional reform was proposed at the first Students’ General Association board meeting of the year, on Sept. 25, and President Andy Rollins said the SGA executive put out a “call to board members” to look over the current constitution and think of any changes they would like to see.

The SGA also handed out two packages: one copy of the current constitution, and one copy of suggested changes.

“Our constitution is a little bit outdated,” said Rollins. “What (the SGA) basically wants to do is update it. The new constitution will reflect more of where the SGA is now, rather than where it was 20 years ago when the constitution was first made.”

The next SGA board meeting is on Oct. 9, and Rollins said he “really encourages” students to attend the meeting, where the constitutional changes will be discussed at length but not yet voted on.

“At the end of the day, the constitution is the one legal document that guides the whole organization for the students. The more input and insight we can have from all across the university, the better, and the more people that come out to the meetings, the better the constitution could be.”

While there is no official timeline set for the reform, Rollins says the next step will be taken once all board members are comfortable with the new constitution draft.

Once a new draft is completed, it will be read at the following board meeting, and board members will then have until the next meeting after that to decide if they agree with the new draft, at which point a vote will be taken.

Charles Cardinal-Wilson, Executive Director of the SGA, said that for the new constitution to become official, the board would need a two-thirds majority at three-fourths quorum: at which point the new constitution would be effective immediately. Quorum is the number of board members that need to be present in order for a vote to have power. If there was less than a two-thirds majority in favour of the constitutional changes, another vote would be held at the next meeting.

“The by-laws include many things that should not be in there – there are some bizarre things,” said Wilson. “A reform will take some of these things out.”

lambda@laurentian.ca