Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) quickly and unanimously approved 16 of 23 constitutional amendments up for vote at the group's Wednesday meeting while two other amendments involved debate and tension among students, forcing the assembly to stay beyond its 10 p.m. automatic adjournment.
Much of the discussion centered on the ultimately tabled 23rd amendment concerning class officer roles. The first amendment, which addresses the hotly debated presidential eligibility requirement, passed with a 23-1 vote.
The 22 amendments that BSG passed will now go to a student body referendum before the proposed changes actually occur. If the student body passes the first amendment, students without previous BSG experience will be able to run for BSG President.
The amendments are one result of BSG's February retreat where, after small group discussions among members, Vice President of BSG Affairs John Connolly '11 drafted the amendments and later discussed them with BSG members.
Between this initial draft and the formal introduction of the amendments to the BSG assembly at its March 5 meeting, various groups on campus read and discussed the amendments with BSG members. BSG revised the amendments as necessary, with further discussion over Spring Break.
According to the BSG meeting packet, the first amendment reads, "The President of the BSG need not have previously served on the BSG to run for office."
At the meeting, Class of 2009 Representative Sophia Seifert stated that while she does not agree with the amendment, "the spirit of us passing it is to let students make a decision" about presidential eligibility.
"Even though many members of the BSG do not support the removal of the prior service requirement for President," Connolly wrote in an e-mail, "we felt it was important that the student body as a whole be allowed to make the final decision on the issue instead of us."
Several class officers, including Class of 2011 President Houston Kraft, Class of 2011 Vice President Grant Easterbrook, Class of 2011 Community Service Officer Karl Nyagoni, Class of 2010 President Matt Yantakosol, and Class of 2010 Vice President Alicia Martinez, attended the meeting to discuss the 23rd amendment.
The amendment reads, "All references in the Constitution to Community Service Officer will be changed to Public Relations Officer," who will "be in charge of helping the President foster class unity through communication and coordination."
This restructuring is an alternative to the unofficially titled "Foster Plan" proposed by Justin Foster '11. This called for a comprehensive revamping of the class officer teams.
BSG was forced to split discussion over the 23rd amendment into three separate parts. Following an extension of BSG's 10 p.m. automatic adjournment, a motion to table the amendment resulted in an 11-11-1 vote. Ultimately, BSG President Dustin Brooks '08 broke the tie with a vote of approval, tabling the amendment for further discussion.
"I don't think anybody who originally created the class officer reform intended for it to be as significant as it became," Brooks wrote in an e-mail.
Early discussion focused on the relevance of the community service officer position.
"Getting rid of Community Service Officer is probably a wise decision," Nyagoni stated at the start of the discussion. "There's nothing stopping the class officers from doing community service projects anyway," he said, adding that the position is "no longer useful."
Community Service Council Representative Alison Spencer '08 agreed, stating that BSG policy is "foreign" to the Community Service Resource Center.
Kraft said that community service should be "encouraged, not required," stating that community service work can be delegated among the rest of the officer team.
Other students argued that the position should remain, while Rutledge Long '10 took issue with the title of its replacement office, Public Relations Officer. Long called the title "desensitizing and way too professional," among other criticism.
At this point in the meeting, Dan Levis '10 suggested tabling the amendment, stating that "this bill originated as an attempt to totally restructure what we do with class officers... and it's turned into something that's moved away from that."
Vice President of Academic Affairs Sam Dinning '09 stated in response that tabling an amendment would equal "pushing it off to next year."
As debate resumed, Brooks decided to put the discussion aside momentarily, but tensions rose again when the assembly returned to the topic.
"When we all read the original document, it was very offensive... as if we were some subset or subordinate [to BSG]," Martinez stated. "If you really want to improve the system... it should be something that we work on together. We know best what our needs are."
"This is a large issue... that shouldn't be solved this evening by the BSG by themselves," Sam Kamin '08 stated.
Kyle Ritter '09 agreed, stating that "it would be completely unfair" to tackle the issue in one meeting.
Brooks again shifted discussion to other amendments, and the third attempt at discussion led almost immediately to the ultimate motion to table.
To address the unresolved 23rd amendment, BSG members, class officers, and any interested student body members will hold an informal discussion on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. in the Smith Union Conference Room.
"I thought tonight showed a lot of healthy disagreement," Vice President for Student Affairs Sam Dinning '09 wrote in an e-mail. "Most of the issues we discussed were very simple, but on the others people were not hesitant to share their views and took the time to thoroughly analyze the decisions."
Other BSG members were less satisfied with the tone of the discussion.
"While it was nice to see so many class officers show up," Kata Solow '10 wrote in an e-mail, "some of their comments were unconstructive, aggressive, and misleading."
In a statement e-mailed to the Orient, the class officers who attended the meeting said that they "disagree with the BSG's current proposition to change the structure of the class governments, but look forward to further and more detailed discussions this Sunday on how to best represent our respective classes without completely reinventing a system that isn't broken."
In her e-mail, Solow wrote, "I'm hopeful that both groups will be able to come to some agreement."
"Student governance is about discourse, and I think it is good that the BSG was able to put this vote on hold so that further discussion can be had," Program Advisor/Student Activities Advisor Kate Bathras wrote in an e-mail. "Student governance is by definition about students governing themselves, so it is our expectation that they will work through this together."