There are amendments that were passed by Fairfield University Students Association’s Senate over a year ago that are not included in any version of the organization’s constitution, according to several students active in FUSA,. The students also question the legitimacy of any version of the constitution.
“It seems like it could very well be an accident,” Marini said. “It is a dangerous oversight. It was official senate business and an official senate vote. But an official record of this business doesn’t exist.”
According to John Paul Marini ’02, Jason Cummings ’02, Kevin Bennett ’02 and Vincent Farisello ’03 there are several amendments that were passed by the Senate previous to its ratification by the student body on Dec. 12, 2000.
However, according to these people, a copy of the constitution with these amendments included does not exist to the best of their knowledge.
The Mirror reported in Dec. 2000 that four amendments were passed by Senate on Sunday December 10, two days before the student body approved the Constitution.
One of the amendments subjected FUSA to student referendum if half of the student body signed a petition, according to these students.
“It’s pretty essential in case the voice of the student body was circumvented in some way,” said JP Marini, Co-Chairman of the Board of Governors. “Referendums are important because they mean the ability to have a direct appeal to the student body.”
Another amendment outlined the Board of Governors section of FUSA. There is a section in the constitution that refers to Board of Governors, but Marini says that the amendment passed has a more detailed description of governing structure behind the Board of Governors.
The third amendment, according to Marini, calls a constitutional convention every five years. The fourth states that all undergraduates at Fairfield are official members of FUSA.
These students say that the FUSA Senate approved the constitution in 2000 with these sections of the constitution omitted. Then they were passed in time for a revised version of the constitution to be approved by a student vote.
Since that vote, the amendments have not been seen, reportedly.
According to Marini, the final step in legitimizing a FUSA constitution is for it to be signed by Vice President of Student Services William Schimpf. Marini says that Schimpf had not signed any version of the constitution before last year’s election, meaning that current FUSA president Joe Piagentini was elected under according to a process that was not fully binding.
Marini is unsure as to whether a version of the constitution-with or without the amendments-has been signed by Schimpf since last summer.
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