As the Fairfield University Student Association (FUSA) puts the finishing touches on a new constitution, it has indicated that all winter elections will be postponed from now until mid-late March, according to Brett Ritterbeck, FUSA’s vice president of senate.
“If this were a normal year, we’d be starting the election process this weekend,” Ritterbeck said. “Right now, we’re very close to completely overhauling our constitution, so we’re going to push it back about a month. A move from February to late March is something we’ve been contemplating in the new constitution, so we’re going to go ahead and start that now.”
The overhaul Ritterbeck is referring to is more formally known as the Constitutional Convention, a series of meetings comprised of student representatives from all levels of FUSA. The sole purpose of these meetings has been to rewrite the existing constitution. Many “major” changes to the constitution have been made since then, said FUSA President Paul Duffy.
The first meeting was on Nov. 15. “In reviewing the constitution, one of the most important questions we wanted to address was ‘Is FUSA still effective?'” said Ritterbeck. “We also wanted to structure the new constitution so that the senate fully realizes the power they possess as representatives of the student body.”
To address these concerns, the latest draft of the constitution has consolidated the entire organization from a five-branch to a three-branch system.
The convention has eliminated the Programming Board and the Board of Governors as formal branches of FUSA, and their function now falls under the jurisdiction of the three remaining branches – the Executive branch, the Senate and the Student Court.
” We wanted to make FUSA work better together as a whole, and to make sure that all of FUSA and its elements are being clearly defined,” said Kristina Chomick, chair of the Constitutional Convention and executive assistant to the Senate.
“The three-branch system will be much simpler within FUSA and also from the perspective of the students,” said Duffy. “Also, it ties everything together and improves communication within the branches.
In addition to consolidating the government into three branches, the new constitution calls for the FUSA President’s appointment of secretaries to several new cabinet posts. These include secretaries of Academics, Student Life and Government Operations.
“In making these cabinet posts, we’re trying to establish point men for senators and other FUSA reps to go to when they have questions or resolutions regarding the given subjects,” Ritterbeck said.
“Also, we’re trying to relieve Paul [Duffy] and Jill [Grant] of any superfluous responsibility,” he added.
The move of elections from early February to the end of March is going to be a permanent change. “In our experience, we’ve found that the transition period has been too long,” said Ritterbeck. “By pushing the election back, we’ve shortened the transition period, making it a little more intense, and we’ve also shortened the time when have a lame duck FUSA President, VPs, and Senators sitting in the office.”
Before these changes can be executed, the constitution (not yet finalized) must be ratified first by the senate, then by the FUSA President, and last by the VP of Student Services, William Schimpf.
“The biggest problem we have is the length. Right now, the latest draft is sixteen pages long. There are still things that can be cut – certain clauses – while at the same time we’re finding that other parts of the constitution are irrelevant,” said Ritterbeck.
“I’ve been working on the constitution for two years as FUSA Parliamentarian,” said Chomick. “We’ve been working on it so hard in the past couple of months that we’re having a hard time seeing that it’s too long.”
“Our main goal is to produce the best document possible, so we’re willing to work on it for as long as it takes,” said Duffy. “At the latest, we want it to be done for the next transition period,” said Duffy.
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