Plan to overhaul student government becomes clearer

Nate Brown, the Undergraduate Student Government vice president, will resign from office Wednesday after a week of heated debates over his plan to overhaul the current system of government.

Brown, who had no details regarding who would take his place, decided that if he were to actively pursue his plan, he would have to devote full attention to his campaign.

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“I don’t want the current USG to suffer for something that I need to do,” Brown said.

Some senators called for his resignation last week, but Brown refused to acknowledge that it was time for him to step aside and stood firm by his commitment to serve out his term, which ends in May. But he recently decided he would step down, stressing that he would train whoever would take his place at USG’s second meeting of the semester Wednesday.

Brown met Friday with 14 senators, former senators and various heads of student organizations at a local restaurant to hammer out the details of his new government. At the meeting, several of Brown’s proposals were changed. His new student government would be named the Association of Undergraduate Students. Brown had stated earlier that his constitution was a fluid document.

Brown plans to finish ratifying his constitution before Wednesday’s USG meeting.

Josh Perschbacher, a former USG senator, and the students present, acknowledged at Friday’s meeting that something had to be done about the 25 unfilled seats on the senate. But, Perschbacher said, Brown’s proposal to allow deans to pick senators from various colleges across campus was placing too much power in the hands of the administration.

The group decided elections would become strictly college events. Ballots would be distributed at each college with only the names of senators running to represent that academic area.

The president would be the only campus-wide elected official, and colleges would have no more than five senators representing its interests. The senate would then appoint the vice president.

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The group changed Brown’s original number of senators from 18 to 24. The new number is closer to the actual attendance at every meeting, Brown said. The president would also have to present a “State of a Union” address every semester to state what the senate has accomplished.

To tackle senator apathy, senators will now have to submit goals for resolutions and amendments to the vice president by Oct. 1. The senators will then have to produce reports about the progress of their goals.

Last week, six senators came out against Brown’s complete overhaul, but were ready to change USG from within, saying that Brown was taking the power away from the students.

Ed Ford, student trustee to the Board of Trustees, said last week the new structure was a scam.

“A new structure is going to take away the power from USG,” Ford said.

The new government would also do away with the judicial branch of USG, which is largely inactive. Brown said getting rid of the judicial branch would help eliminate the existing bureaucracy that seems to impede senate actions.

USG President Tequia Hicks has remained relatively quiet during the recent debates over restructuring the government. Hicks said she is not ready to address any of Brown’s proposals. She was not surprised by Brown’s announcement to resign, given the circumstances, and has several candidates in mind to replace him.

“Until the signatures are there, I don’t think I can take a position,” Hicks said. “I can’t say that I love it or hate.”

Brown will need 5,000 student signatures for his proposal to be on the ballot in April’s elections. Senators have already begun petitioning the student body for signatures. Once the plan is voted on, if it passes, the chancellor will then decide if a new government would take shape.

Brown had hoped to finish ratifying his constitution last Monday, but senators began criticizing his motives and loyalty to the organization. At Friday’s meeting, Brown, along with his handpicked team, voted on his proposals and amended some of his recommendations for a new government.

Brown’s plans originally called for a limit to the number of senators at 18, as well as a new system of funding to take the burden off of the senate.

For the eight months that Brown has been in office, the organization has never had a full senate and is operating with 33 of its 58 seats full.

Over the past two weeks, Brown has expressed frustrations with the senate’s inability to pass resolutions and address internal amendments. Senators have countered that the executive branch has not coached the inexperienced senate enough.

Hicks, who is in support of change in whatever form it may be, said expressing her support of Brown is not in the interest of the student body.

“Once it gets on the ballot, I think the students will expect me to take a position,” she said. “We need to keep improving on what we are doing.”

Reporter Moustafa Ayad can be reached at [email protected]