Union to focus on cable

The Student Union, the undergraduate student government at Boston University, will enter its 34th session following a year filled with internal changes.

Last spring, the student body elected ‘True 2’ to be this year’s Executive Board. Carl Woog will be the slate’s president and is one of four slate members returning from last year’s ‘True’ slate.

After winning the election by a large margin in March, slate members said they would focus on getting ‘educational cable’ so students can watch news networks, programming from College of Communication and other approved channels. Other plans for this year included securing funding for fraternities and sororities and improving the escort service and their website (www.bu.edu/union).

The Union consists of three branches Senate, Tribunal and Executive Board each having separate powers and jurisdictions, similar to the workings of the United States government.

Students elect a slate each spring to the Executive Board. Slates include students running on a specific platform of ideas with each member holding a different position, similar to the way political parties run for a presidential election. Each slate contains a president, executive vice president and several other vice presidents responsible for areas like student safety and programming.

The Senate contains two representatives from each college and residence hall, for a total of 50 senators when all positions are filled. Due to BU’s housing shortage, additional representatives will be added to represent those students living in the Hotel Commonwealth.

Students may run for a Senate position in the fall; however, the Student Union Elections Committee has not yet set the election date. Once elected, each senator selects a committee to serve on, and then works to voice their respective constituency’s concerns and function as a communications bridge between students and the Executive Board.

The Union’s judicial branch, the Tribunal, is composed of three members selected by the president and approved by the Senate. Tribunal seats are open to all students, but if a senator is appointed, they must resign the Senate position. Tribunal members oversee Senate meetings and ‘ensure the parliamentary procedure,’ Woog said.

During last year’s session, many problems between Tribunal and the other branches arose while former President Ethan Clay worked to revise the Union constitution. Two Tribunal members resigned before the constitution was eventually ratified, leaving the Union with a single Tribune, sophomore Nayan Ranchhod, at the last meeting.

During the final six-hour meeting, the Senate approved both Clay’s proposed constitution and freshman Jacob Cote to Tribunal. The third member will be selected this fall by Woog.

Although the constitution was approved by both the Senate and seven college governments before the Union’s session ended, the administration has not yet approved it. Originally two-thirds of the college governments or eight of the 11 needed to ratify it. But after the School of Management abstained, Ranchhod allowed the document to be passed with only seven approvals.

The Student Activities Office and its director, Carolyn Norris, advise the Union.

‘They are our business office,’ Woog said. ‘It’s a professional support group for us, but we are not encumbered to them in a political sense. We have a significant amount of independence from SAO.’

Norris agreed the Union is mainly independent from SAO and said she advises them.

Both SAO and the Dean of Students Office have been considering the proposed constitution for approval all summer. Norris would not comment on the progress, but Woog said he is hopeful the constitution will be put into effect this fall.

‘Throughout the summer we received positive comments about their approval,’ he said. ‘It’s just a matter of putting the ball in motion on their side.’

Norris, Assistant Dean of Students Allen J. Ward and Woog will be holding what Woog called a ‘strategy session’ in September concerning the document.

Woog said he believes administrators’ concerns have been keeping the constitution from being approved, specifically concerns about funding issues.

‘They are interested particularly in some of the causes that will affect their day to day operations,’ he said. ‘It will affect the way they do business.’

One of the changes in the proposed constitution deals with how the Undergraduate Student Fee is handled. Currently the Union is given the $300,000 from the fee each year to distribute among 400 student groups on campus.

‘Student groups write proposals and our allocations groups allocate the money accordingly,’ Woog said. ‘We are the premiere funding source for student groups it is the way they thrive on campus through the money that we distribute.’

The new constitution would place more of the ‘difficult decision’ in the students’ hands through specific changes to the e-board, Woog said.

The new constitution renames the executive board a ‘Cabinet’ that includes president, executive vice president, comptroller and vice presidents of academic affairs, residence life, internal affairs and external affairs, shrinking the Union’s executive branch by four positions.

The current constitution includes nine positions on the executive board president, executive vice president and vice presidents of academic affairs, financial affairs, public relations, multicultural affairs, residence life, safety services and student affairs.

E-board members would be elected together in the spring, with the exclusion of the comptroller, who would be appointed by the Student Union Allocations Board. Woog said the comptroller would also not have a vote in the cabinet, while the other positions would due to the democratic process.

‘The voting power is limited to only people who are elected to the slate, and that’s a huge difference,’ he said.

Along with handling the Undergraduate Student Fee, Woog said the Union has many other important functions.

‘We compile the concerns of the student body and work to increase the quality of campus life for all students,’ he said.

Last school year, the Union landed a student position on the presidential search committee, hosted two open forums with President John Silber, provided low-cost travel for students over Thanksgiving break and passed three proposals on minority retention, a 24-hour study lounge and mail problems.

‘I think we’re the first Union to complete two quality proposals in one semester, in addition to actually receiving quality response,’ Clay said.

Woog said the most important aspect of the Student Union was ‘spreading the word in the name of BU to other students and to Boston’ while advocating and offering programming and services to the BU community.

He specifically cited events put on by the Student Union as having a large impact on students.

‘We put on large events for the campus events that are exciting to students and encourage them to stay on campus,’ he said.