After an hour and 22 minutes of extensive and contentious discussion, the 33rd Student Senate voted in favor of “showing support” for a proposal to create a referendum in the upcoming election that would allow voters to end constituencies in the USM Student Senate. The Senate then voted against allowing the proposal to go to the Board of Trustees (BOT) before it be placed on the ballot.
The proposal, introduced by Senate Vice-Chair Andrew Bossie, asked students if they were “in favor of abolishing Student Senate constituencies.” Currently, the 21 seats of the Student Senate are divided into three constituencies: Commuter, resident and at-large.
When the proposal came before the Senate to be voted on, Senate Parliamentarian Adam Mirmelli, speaking on behalf of the Constitution Review Committee, urged the Senate body to vote against the proposal, and reminded the Senate that passing the proposal would require two-thirds approval of the entire Senate body, including the three absent senators. Mirmelli abstained from voting, citing a need to be objective because of his position on the executive board.
“I’m in favor of doing away with constituencies,” said Senator Joshua Chaisson. “I’m confident students will vote for those who best represent them.” Chaisson voted to show support for the proposal but voted against sending it to the BOT because he didn’t think enough students would know what they were voting on.
“I feel that this is an important issue that students need to vote on at a later date.”
Senator Caroline Young also voted against sending the proposal to the BOT.
“Voting ‘no’ was in the best interest of the students,” said Young. Although she does not support the idea of doing away with constituencies, she would support a special referendum after the elections so there could be more time for students to become informed. Young raised the additional concern of how this might affect who votes.
“This might decrease the body of people we are drawing from,” said Young.
“[The proposal] offers a possibility of disenfranchisement,” Daniel Lawrence, a junior majoring in linguistics, said from the galley.
Senators Chaisson and Young are running for the newly formed position of Student Body President. Lawrence is running for a residential seat on 34th Student Senate.
In a prepared statement for The Free Press, Senator Jason Toothaker expressed frustration with the process. “I really don’t understand it,” read the statement. “The students of USM should have the opportunity to vote on this on election day-this issue is important to the student body.”
Because this year’s student elections fall before the next BOT meeting, the proposal would not have gone onto the ballot until 2006. If a special referendum could collect at least 200 signatures, it is possible students could vote on the issue as early as the end of this semester or the beginning of the fall 2005 semester.