Barely three days after his victory, Boston University Student Union President-elect James Sappenfield proposed sweeping changes to The New Deal Constitution, which met firm resistance from General Assembly members at this year’s final General Assembly meeting. Voting members erupted in ovation when the student advocacy body moved to table the amendment talks until the fall.
This year’s Union, under President Matt Seidel, spent a lot of time in the beginning of school year writing the constitution. Sappenfield said he wanted to change the constitution in a way that made the document more concrete.
‘I’m trying to avoid the e-board [executive board] being able to walk in and rip the whole thing apart,’ Sappenfield, a College of Arts and Sciences and School of Management junior, said during his presentation in CAS room 222 last night.
‘But that is exactly what you’re doing,’ Meredith Reid, the Residence Life Committee chairwoman, interrupted.
Sappenfield’s amendments would eliminate town halls, simplify the impeachment process, give Union’s summer team more power, make cabinet meetings public and create at-large GA voting positions meant to reward active members who do not have an official say on Union issues. The at-large voting spots, for students who do not hold leadership roles in their constituencies, sparked intense debate between about 30 attendees.
As with any other voting position, students who wish to hold at-large positions would need to win a two-thirds majority vote from the GA, Sappenfield said. Instead of representing one group, the at-large voter would represent the BU population as a whole.
‘We have a lot of [existing] positions where people aren’t even showing up at all,’ Reid, a CAS senior, said during the meeting.
Kathryn Fitzgerald, an Executive Staff member who dropped out of this year’s presidential race, also expressed her disapproval of the proposed positions. She said joining union should be about more than just voting; it should be about wanting to fight for issues.’
‘You don’t do the work so that you can get the vote,’ Fitzgerald, a CAS freshman, said.
‘I don’t feel that there is any group on campus that is underrepresented,’ she added in reference to the at-large voter’s broad representation.
The GA decided to postpone the amendment votes, meaning the debate will renew next year if Sappenfield presses for the changes to the constitution.
Union Vice President Paula Griffin said even though she saw no major pitfalls, internal bickering held Union back more than anything else this year.
‘We got a little bit hung up in procedural,’ Griffin said at the end of the meeting. ‘We had some issues with attendance and a lot of little things that got in the way.’
After the meeting, Sappenfield said he was willing to put off the amendments for a time, but not forever, because he believes in the power of the clarity that the changes would provide.
‘If anything, defining procedure helps rid internal politics,’ Sappenfield said.
Matt Seidel concluded his final GA meeting as Union president by rattling off Union’s accomplishments this year. He cited improving the Boston University Shuttle service, registering 50 students to vote in the U.S. presidential election, achieving medical amnesty for sexual assault victims, improving the Union website and hosting the first-ever intercollegiate summit.
But, after the meeting, Seidel also recognized that most of the student body is not aware of what Union does.
‘These things got accomplished and yet there is still this negative stereotype about Union being ineffective,’ Seidel, a CAS junior, said.
Seidel attributed the lack of awareness to some inherent problems with the BU community as well as Union itself.
‘You’ve got a campus of 16,000 people all across Boston, and we have really no central place to advertise and get the word out there,’ Seidel said.
‘The biggest problem with Union is if you want to work on big issues, then people criticize because they might not see change every year,’ Seidel continued. ‘With smaller things that have direct impact, people criticize and say it’s not big enough.’
In response to the possible cuts to residence computer lab services, one of the more major issues that Union has faced, the advocacy body passed a proposal listing a set of guarantees it wants to see. In addition to demands that have already been reported, like 24-hour computer service and increased escort security service in areas of campus that see print service reductions, Union wants computer lab employees to be assured paid or volunteer positions relative to their career interests.
These demands will be sent to the Dean of Students office and are meant to represent the BU student voice, which Seidel said is Union’s greatest power. But Seidel also said that students need to take responsibility for their own wishes.
‘Students really need to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they are doing everything they can to be involved or are they just blaming other people,’ he said after the meeting.’
‘We need to stop looking for failure. If Union fails, we all fail.’
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