The motion made last week by Class of ’02 Senator John Cahill was discussed and again postponed by the Student Senate on Monday. Discussion of the motion is set to resume at the Senate’s next meeting.
The motion calls for an amendment to The Rensselaer Union Constitution that would dissolve the Independent Council. Arguments in favor of the motion included a perceived lack of necessity for the existence of such a board, and its current inability to gather information.
"My primary concern for this bill is mainly that the IC has no real connections with its constituents," Cahill said.
Since putting the motion on the table, however, Cahill has worked with IC President Jacob Hunt on a restructuring proposal that he believes will take care of the communication problem. The plan describes a hierarchy of representatives into the dorms that would facilitate communication with on-campus independents.
"We wanted to build a foundation for the IC," Cahill said. "If this is going to be something lasting, we wanted it to have something to go off of."
Concerns over the council’s lack of issues still hung in the Senate, however, and a decision on what to do with the motion has yet to be made.
The redundancy of the council was also called into question. Proponents of the motion argued that if an issue came up which faced independents, it could be handled either by the Residence Hall Association or the Senate itself.
In addition, the RHA already has representatives in each of the dorms. The new IC structure would require that more representatives be found in each building, making the process for contacting student government more confusing for students.
Opponents of the motion claimed that the IC is working on becoming a more active group after its near death in the past few years. The restructuring proposed by Cahill and Hunt would be a step toward
putting new life into the organization.
Some also felt that it was necessary to keep the IC around in the event that an issue came up which faced independents. "We do need to have something representing the independents, but in its current incarnation, it’s not doing that," Cahill said.
Travis McCune, senator for the class of ’02, also supported the council. "There is a valid reason for the existence of the IC, and maybe it shouldn’t be scrapped as much as changed."
The plan as presented by Cahill and Hunt was still in the rough-draft stages, and some issues still needed to be handled.
One of the problems senators had with the proposal was the lack of support for off-campus independents. Cahill and Hunt assured them that the issue had been considered and a system of communication would be added to the plan before the final draft was complete.
Another sticking point in the plan was the implementation of the IC senator as a "spokesperson" for the IC. This was seen by many as a response to the actions of the current IC senator, Will Bobrowski, who originally proposed amending the constitution.
