Union committee working, despite Tribunal

After the Student Union Tribunal declared a constitutional review committee created by the executive board unconstitutional at a Union meeting three weeks ago, Union president Ethan Clay has disregarded the ruling, continued working with the committee and filed an appeal with the Student Activities Office, Clay said yesterday.

The outcome of the appeal, which was sent to SAO director Carolyn Norris, will be announced today.

Clay said he disagreed with the ruling, which he said forced him to appeal the decision.

‘I believe the clarification that Tribunal made was made in haste and without necessity,’ he said. ‘To me the Tribunal was attempting to legislate and set in stone a process that should be handled by the elected officials of the Student Union.’

Clay emphasized the fact that he believed Tribunal should have no right to rule against elected individuals in the Senate and executive board.

‘Why should Tribunal a set of three appointed officials have the veto power over 40 elected officials?’ Clay said.

Regardless of the ruling, the committee formed by the executive board has continued its progress over the past several weeks, Clay said.

‘We continue working on this extremely important process,’ Clay said. ‘We will not allow Tribunal’s actions to interfere with the import legislative work of this union.’

The committee had scheduled two meetings with representatives of the special bodies of the Student Union around Spring Break, but only the meeting with the Student Union Allocations Board took place. The other was canceled due to inclement weather.

The current process to ratify any changes made to the constitution was legitimate, Clay said, but he disagreed with Tribunal’s ruling and said he believed any member of the Student Union, even senators and tribunal members, should have the right to form committees to make changes to the constitution.

‘If Tribunal wanted to make changes,’ he said. ‘They should be able to do so on their own without me having to serve on the committee.’

Clay claimed Tribunal members overstepped their responsibility in calling the committee unconstitutional and said the Tribunal was attempting to give themselves more power. The job of Tribunal was not to make changes to the constitution but to enforce the rules already established, he said.

‘The job of Tribunal is solely to protect and interpret the constitution,’ he said. ‘They gave themselves equal power to the Senate and more power than the elected members of the executive board.’

Clay said those who had problems with the constitution, including Tribunal members, should have expressed those concerns to the current committee rather than attempt to dissolve it.

‘I believe if Tribunal or any other members of the Student Union had any concerns with the review process, those concerns should have been brought to the attention of any member of the committee,’ he said.

Tribunal’s original ruling said the committee must be made up of the Student Union president, vice president of Financial Affairs, a representative from each of the Union’s special bodies, at least one Tribunal Member and a committee composed of five senators. The original committee had been composed solely of executive board members.

Senior tribunal member John Underwood could not comment on the appeal yesterday because he said he had just received the appeal and had not discussed it with other tribunal members.

Clay said he had met with Norris on two separate occasions to discuss his appeal and tribunal members were set to meet with her today, but expressed uncertainty as to whether or not that meeting would occur.

Tribunal had declared the original committee unconstitutional during a contentious senate meeting three weeks ago. Tribunal, Senate and the Executive board resorted to yelling at each other, bringing the meeting to a halt on the issue.

An announcement about the appeal should be made at tonight’s Senate meeting.