From the Commie Archives (March 29, 1995; Volume 59, Issue 11) — Constitutional Amendment Hearings Complete

Editor’s Note: The Wilf campus recently held a constitutional convention towards approving a new constitution. In relation to that, The Commentator has reprinted an article discussing past revisions of the YCSC constitution in place then.

With little pomp, but a lot of circum­stance, YCSC completed its hearings to amend the YCSC constitution. In two grueling sessions held last week in·Schottenstein Center, student leaders proposed and debated issues ranging from election reform to freedom of the press.

In one controversial motion, Dov Si­mons, kicking off his campaign for the Vice-Presidency, suggested that all those working on behalf of a candidate regis­ter with the canvassing

committee, so that they would be bound to the same election rules as the candidates. This proposal was met with much discussion as to how to implement it, and how to levy penalties for violations.

Simons also proposed a number of amendments dealing with student council meetings, including having repre­sentatives of all committees present at meetings to answer questions. He stated that while this year's council has held open meetings, this has not always been the case, and an article in the constitu­tion would preclude future student councils from becoming elitist clubs.

Michael Nelson, chairman of the con­stitutional amendment committee sug­gested that non-full time students be allowed to vote. Some students ques­tioned whether that would give MTA students taking college courses voting privileges. YCSC President Billig, chairman of the meeting, announced that YCSC and The Commentator had reached an agree­ment which would assuage concerns caused by Billig's claim that The Com­mentator was subject to discipline by YCSC. The two parties had met earlier over dinner in order to iron out differ­ences. The agreement which came out of the meeting minimizes the influence of YCSC,but contains

a clause which would force The Commentator to print a letter from YCSC in “extreme circumstances.” In addition, the amendment states that The Commentator budget may not be cut by more than a small percentage, and that YCSC cannot remove a member of the governing board of the newspaper.

Commentator Editor-in-Chief Moshe Kinderleher explained that much work had gone into writing the new proposal, and that he was quite pleased with the result of  “a lot of open and candid discussion about YCSC’s involvement with The Commentator. The amendment is a tremendous stride forward in the newspaper’s ability to operate as a fully independent and active voice of the student body,” he noted.

Another proposal was to remove “Kol” and “Tempo” from the list of publications mandated by the constitution.YC student Michael Sussman argued that Kol should be protected, both because of the high status given literary journals in many other universities, as well as the possibility that an incident similar to last year’s could cause Kol’s funding to be cut off. 

These and other proposals will be voted on by the outgoing student council. The revised constitution will then be submitted to the students shortly before election day, giving them a minimum of two days to examine it and compare it to their old ones (printed in the Guide to the Perplexed). As part of the elections, students will be able to vote whether or not to accept the changes approved by the council. If the vote is no, the old constitution will remain in effect.

In closing, Billig thanked all those who had participated in the process. He pointed out that while the process had been “long and grueling”, there had been a large amount of interest, and significant changes had been proposed. The meeting, held in Schottenstein, attracted in total 50–60 students.