By Amalya Teitlebaum, Social Media Manager
A vote will be cast amongst the Wilf Campus Student body on December 16 to decide whether or not 13 amendments will be added to the Wilf Constitution.
When it comes to adding to the Wilf constitution, many steps are in place to ensure that the amendments reflect the inclination of the Wilf community. Typically the process of adding to the constitution begins with the creation of amendments by the Amendments Committee, they then are reviewed by the General Assembly (GA), and if approved there, they are voted on by the Wilf Campus student body. These amendments have passed through both the Amendments Committee and the General Assembly, and are now up to the Student Body vote to decide whether or not they will be passed. The vote will be conducted on December 16.
The proposed amendments involve clarifications, additions, repealments, and corrections. The first amendment consists of grammar edits to the already existing amendments. It as well includes removed amendments based on redundancy, and corrections for the sake of uniformity.
The second proposed amendment is mostly clarifications and logical specifications. This includes defining temporary leave for officials, who will serve during temporary leave, clarifications involving club rules, election processes, and making Student Court decisions public.
For juniors and sophomores interested in high official positions, the third proposed amendment offers changes to the requirements needed to obtain these positions. These suggested new class standing requirements involve the opportunity for juniors with four completed semesters to act as Yeshiva Student Union (YSU) vice president (VP) of Clubs, as well as for juniors or sophomores with two completed semesters to become YSU VP of Class Affairs.
The fourth proposed amendment involves the period and timing for new club period submissions for new semesters.
The powers and positions of the GA are discussed in the fifth amendment, preventing individuals from being on specified positions simultaneously, and allowing them to remove, by majority of vote, members of the Canvassing Committee (CC) deemed unfit to serve.
The sixth amendment involves Katz and Makor rewrites and clarifications. This section includes repealments based on redundancy and prohibitions on Katz and Makor students from voting in certain elections, amongst other rewrites.
The seventh amendment contains a comprehensive rewrite of everything relating to committees and is currently referred to by the Amendments Committee as a “complete mess.” Committee members may want to pay special attention to this amendment. The new and improved rewrite includes committee appointments and removal processes, end of the year committee occurrences, and many more substantial implements.
The eighth amendment involves rules for tied elections and situations where there is no clear winner in Fall-2 elections. Fall-2 refers to the month-long period for filling positions that are not filled during the original fall elections.
The ninth proposed amendment addresses issues of the position of Canvassing Committee chairman. This amendment involves clarification of which committees you may not be a part of while holding this position.
The tenth amendment discusses Student Court-related changes. This includes adjustment to the court’s official replacement process, requirements to be a court official member, and prohibitions from holding simultaneous positions on certain committees.
The impeachment proceedings were changed in the eleventh amendment now stating that an impeachment can be brought forth by 3/5 of the GA, 1/3 of the student body, or 2/3 of the elected officials of the Wilf Campus Student Government (WCSG).
Perhaps more relevant due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the twelfth proposed amendment involves emergency amendments. The proposals involve the ability for emergency amendments to be voted on throughout the semester, with setting specific approval requirements.
Finally, the thirteenth amendment discusses archives of student court opinions, election results, and versions of the Constitutions. To summarize, these amendments requirements that all these documents be posted online by certain committees, making them available to the public.
The stated purpose of these proposed amendments is to improve the constitution and therefore improve the everyday occurrences on Wilf Campus. As offered by David Tanner, chairman of the Amendments Committee, “The Amendments Committee has been working hard this semester to improve the Wilf Campus Constitution, and I’m very proud of some of the ideas we’ve come up with.” Whether or not the ideas will be turned into amendments, will be left up to the Student Body. Daniel Melool, a Wilf Campus court member, shed light on the intentions of 13 constitutional amendments that will be voted on by the Wilf Campus. He shared with the YU Observer that “This year’s amendments seek to build off the work that began last year to revamp the Constitution. While last year saw a great improvement, there is still work to be done.”