Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) began its Wednesday meeting in a closed executive session, welcoming Chair of the Judicial Board Chelsea Schaeffer ’14 and Dean of Student Affairs Lesley Levy for a presentation of the nominees for the Judicial Board (J-Board).
According to BSG President Sarah Nelson ’14, one of the student assembly’s constitutional roles is approving the names of the students who made it to the final round of nominations. Nelson said that the BSG’s role is largely procedural, with BSG serving as a final source of oversight at the end of the selection process.
Following the J-Board presentation, Vice President for Student Organizations Daniel Mejia-Cruz ’16 opened debate on a set of proposed changes to the rules and regulations of the Student Organization Oversight Committee (SOOC). Prefacing the changes, Mejia-Cruz said that the reforms would mostly codify the already existing rights and privileges of the SOOC.
If approved, the new guidelines would retool club constitutions to serve more effectively as contracts between clubs and the SOOC, standardize the timing of elections of club leaders, and improve communication between those leaders and the SOOC.
Mejia-Cruz said that a major motivation for these reforms is ensuring that clubs are not rudderless in the spring, especially at crucial times when they need to coordinate with the SOOC or the Student Activities Funding Committee (SAFC) to plan for the upcoming year. All clubs would be required to hold elections for and submit the names of the next year’s officers to the SOOC within two weeks of returning from spring break. Depending on the club, the new constitutions might include articles mandating the appearance of club leadership at certain SAFC meetings at the end of the year.
The reforms would also give the SOOC more power in punishing violations of the SOOC’s rules and regulations.
Currently the committee is allowed to revoke a club’s charter if it violates SOOC rules.
However, the new reforms would enable the SOOC to remove club leaders and call for new elections. An additional proposed article would allow club members to petition the SOOC for an inquiry into the effectiveness of current club leadership.
As most of the representatives at the meeting had not yet read the full text of the proposed reforms, a full debate and vote was pushed to next week.
The assembly also introduced a number of resolutions that passed unanimously. The first was to spend $200 to fund the refreshments for this semester’s Food for Thought student lecture series, held every other Monday night in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library’s Nixon Lounge.
The second was a motion to offer shuttles to two concerts in Portland this semester. BSG is providing two 50-person buses for the Avett Brothers show on March 3, and Darius Rucker on March 29; ticket prices were estimated at $10. The final motion was to pay $100 to fund refreshments for this Friday’s Uncommon Hour talk.