Proposed Wilf Constitution Rejected by Student Body; Beren Constitution Ratified by Student Government

 A proposed new Wilf Campus student constitution, which would have restructured the Wilf student government, was rejected by the student body in an online referendum on April 3. A similar constitution was ratified internally by the Beren campus student government the same day.

The Wilf constitution, which required two-thirds support to be ratified, fell short of a majority, garnering only 196 votes, 46.3% of the votes cast, minus abstentions. 227 students, 53.7%, opposed the measure, according to results released Tuesday by Eliyahu Solomon (YC '23), chairman of the Wilf amendments committee. The Beren constitution did not require direct approval from the student body.

"I regret that we didn’t fully articulate the details of the proposed system to each student. In addition to not allowing people to fully understand what they were voting on we also opened the ratification process up to a lot of misunderstandings and hearsay," YSU President Baruch Lerman (YC '23) told The Commentator. "I look forward to the upcoming elections and to hopefully continuing this dialogue and process as we get back from Pesach. I think it is a very promising sign that the Beren campus has adopted the corollary system."

Lerman also shared with The Commentator that only 476 students out of the 1104 eligible cast ballots, including 53 students who abstained and were excluded in the final tally. Additionally, 25 students opened the ballot but closed it without casting a vote.

The Wilf Campus General Assembly approved the constitution and its bylaws for student vote 4-1 March 30. If ratified, the constitution would have gone into effect for the 2023-24 academic year. 

Due to the proposed constitution’s rejection, the upcoming Wilf Campus elections, scheduled for April 27, will continue to be held in accordance with the current constitution, ratified in 2001. Intent-to-run forms were sent to students April 5, and will remain open through Tuesday after a two day deadline extension. The date for the Beren elections has yet to be determined.

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Photo Caption: A proposed Wilf Campus constitution was rejected by the student body on the last day of class before Pesach.

Photo Credit: Yeshiva University