BRIEF: SGA Constitution begins revision process

The University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) Student Government Association (SGA) is undergoing a constitutional revision beginning this semester. The task is an initiative by the new SGA executive council, and students can expect to begin hearing about constitutional amendments in the month to come.

The revisions come following an assessment by the current SGA executive council of the long-standing constitution.

“The SGA constitution is being revised because, as we have learned since our first official SGA meeting, many of the laws stated are ambiguous or left to interpretation,” said Ximena Flandes, vice president of SGA. “While this allows flexibility, it can also be used against the student body, and we want a constitution that is fair for everyone.”

In addition to noting the ambiguity of the constitution, Flandes confirmed that it also lacked some important information, such as the description of the recently implemented Senate.

The current SGA constitution states that anyone may present a constitutional amendment. Following a proposal, all amendments must remain for a thirty-day review period and then may pass by a two-thirds majority vote at an SGA meeting.

“For the revisions, an ad-hoc committee has been created to go over the current constitution and together brainstorm what the new constitution should, and will look like,” Flandes said.

The ad-hoc committee will consist of all four members of the SGA executive council, as well as two senators and two representatives from the student body.

“The way that the committee will work is that we will meet for a minimum of a month, once per week, to rewrite each section of the constitution, following constitutions from other SGAs (specifically from our sister schools) as well as the guidance template found at our university,” Flandes said.

The ad-hoc committee meetings will be closed-door; however, updates will be reported at the weekly SGA meetings, held Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. in the Student Services and Classroom Building (SSCB) lecture hall.

In order to best serve the student body, the SGA executive council is asking all students to share their suggestions for the constitution.

“We are inviting the student body to send us their own amendments to the current constitution,” Flandes said. “For this process, we will also be in contact with the students who sent the document, to let them know of any changes to their amendment, as well as why the change was decided.”

Students can send constitutional amendment suggestions to [email protected] or drop them by the SGA office in SSCB 1205. Updates regarding the constitutional revisions are anticipated to begin at the Oct. 22nd SGA meeting.