On Monday night, Student Activities Commission Chair Sophia Behnia (COL `09) proposed several controversial amendments to the SAC constitution. If they pass, they will eliminate defunct clauses in SAC’s constitution that place it and its commissioner appointments under the authority of the Georgetown University Student Association.
Behnia said she suggested the amendments because the constitution no longer reflects the way the commission actually functions.
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The GUSA Senate was caught off guard by the proposed amendments because recently, GUSA and SAC have been working to make SAC more transparent and accountable to the student body.
According to Senator Matt Wagner (SFS `11), SAC has been a de facto independent organization since 2005, when Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson released a memo that severed GUSA’s oversight capacity. But two weeks ago, he said, the groups reached an informal agreement to give GUSA members a vote in the SAC Chair selection process.
Behnia said that SAC is still interested in working with GUSA and that they can further adjust the selection process for the SAC Chair even if the amendments pass.
GUSA Senators expressed mixed reactions in their Wednesday night meeting. Some were encouraged that Behnia had not ruled out future amendments that would bring GUSA into the commissioner selection process even after it was eschewed from SAC’s constitution. Others were concerned about a SAC-GUSA power struggle.
Wagner, Senator Tyler Stone (COL `09), and Senator Tim Swenson (COL `10) were all vocal in support of leaving SAC free to pass the current amendments in the hope of future cooperation.
“We have to bear in mind that we’re not talking about GUSA and SAC as a superior organization and an inferior organization,” Stone said. “We’re talking about two distinct, independent organizations. We cannot tell SAC what to do, we cannot drag Sophia in here and have some McCarthyite grilling.”
Senator Nick Troiano (COL `11) was less convinced.
“I think ultimately that we’re the deciders in this situation,” he said. “I don’t see how they have any right to redo their constitution.”
Senate Speaker Reggie Greer (COL `09) said that it is important that some form of oversight be introduced to SAC’s constitution.
“There’s a lot of people who question what they do,” he said. “And it’s not that they do anything wrong, it’s just that students don’t have any say.”
I really like the article – you guys did a good job of separating the hype from what’s actually going on. I do wish the title was a bit more indicative of the partnership that’s going on here since the title does suggest some tension that should not rightfully exist, but I guess you call it what you have to in order to get people to read the article.
One quick correction is that the “McCarthyite” quote that you attributed to Tim Swenson was actually said by Tyler Stone (COL ’09) if I remember correctly.
Thanks Matt, we do our best to get it right. As for the title, keep in mind that not everyone seems comfortable with the direction SAC is going. I’ll check on the quote right away, thanks for the heads up.