By Jonathan Smith, Editor in Chief

In one of the longest and most lively Students’ Association meetings of the year, Congress approved a new version of its constitution, which the entire student body now will have an opportunity to ratify in a special election later this semester.

The three-hour meeting Feb. 22 produced a constitution that increases residential representation on Congress, removes the International Students Association liaison as a voting member and includes other minor changes throughout the six-page document.

To open the session, president Justin Scott explained to Congress the history of the ISA liaison, which was instituted four years ago, and its decision to do away with the position.

“The reason that position was instituted was that ISA and SA wanted closer cooperation between their groups,” Scott said.

Scott said he still wanted cooperation between the groups; however, he recognized that because ISA is also one of the groups that requests money from Congress, giving them a specificposition was instituted was that ISA and SA wanted closer cooperation between their groups,” Scott said.

Scott said he still wanted cooperation between the groups; however, he recognized that because ISA is also one of the groups that requests money from Congress, giving them a specific seat on Congress – an opportunity not afforded to other student groups – created a conflict of interest.

“In the interest of equity, we decided we should take that [seat] away from ISA,” Scott said.

Almost as soon as the new constitution was placed before Congress for discussion, members began making amendments ranging from correcting grammatical mistakes to making more substantial changes.

Senior Sen. A.J. Smith proposed an amendment, which Congress overwhelmingly passed 32-2 with one abstention, to add two seats to Congress to represent students living off campus.

Smith said students living off campus have one less avenue of representation on Congress than other students. Currently, students can be represented on Congress by class senators, academic building representatives and residential representatives.

The addition of the off-campus living representatives now guarantees each student has three areas of representation.

The most contentious amendment of the evening called for the addition of Study Abroad representatives.

Proposed by junior Sen. Alaina Bearden, the amendment would havets studying abroad like it does from undergraduates on campus. He questioned whether a Study Abroad representative should vote on the use of funds that their constituents did not contribute to.

“There is some reasoning behind the thought that there needs to be representation,” Cosgrove said. “At the same time, we do make a lot of financial decisions that do they really have a right to vote in?”

Executive officers initially ruled the amendment failed after a vote of 14-12 with seven abstentions. Chief development officer Erin Dimas said the seven abstentions counted in the total votes. With 43 total votes cast, the 14 yes votes did not constitute a majority.

However, Foster Science Building Rep. Christopher Smith challenged the ruling, claiming abstentions should not count as any sort of vote. Upon further review of the voting rules, Dimas said she agreed with Smith and that the amendment had passed 14-12.

Members of Congress – especially those who had abstained in the initial vote – voted to reconsider the amendment because of the confusion about vote totals. Several members who had abstained said they assumed their abstentions would count in the vote totals.

Minutes after initially abstaining, those members decided they had enough information to cast yes or no votes. The amendment failed 13-18.

Although the amendment failed, the newly passed constitution does not prohibit the possibility of students being elected to represent those studying abroad. The constitution states each university-controlled housing facility can have at least one representative as a voting member of Congress.

Because students live in university-controlled housing even while studying in Oxford, England, or Montevideo, Uruguay, future congresses could interpret “university-controlled housing” to include Study Abroad facilities.

The new constitution represented the first of several updates in an effort by Congress to overhaul its governing documents. Congress next will turn its attention to its bylaws in hopes of drafting a new set to coincide with the new constitution.