With a vote for a new student “parliament” within Student Union set for January, those involved in the proposal said the next step is to gain support from the leaders of Boston University’s student groups and teams, who would be expected to make up the organization.
“By the end of next semester, student leaders from across campus will meet for a discussion. That is our time frame,” said Tarif Ahmed, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences who worked on the project.
Ahmed and a number of other students presented the proposal at Union’s general assembly meeting on Dec. 5. Union passed it to an ad hoc committee to make further deliberations when the spring term begins.
Union Executive Vice President Alex Staikos, a junior in the School of Management, said the committee plans to investigate the proposal. With a simply majority vote it would be passed back to the Senate at the next meeting in January for a formal vote of the entire Union senate.
If passed, the proposed parliament would focus on students and their activities, rather than the more bureaucratic matters that Union handles, said CAS sophomore Suzann Duan, who helped draft the proposal.
“We want every group on campus to be able to sit down together at the table,” Duan said. “This would give more attention to student groups and their events and allow a campus-wide pooling of resources.”
The parliament would meet once a month and break into subcommittees to examine events and collaborate on ideas, Duan said.
Students who presented the proposal said the Union board and representatives did not respond positively to the proposal.
CAS sophomore Luke Rebecchi said their “Plan A” involves passing the proposal through Union. If Union votes it down, the students plan to speak with the BU administration.
“It should be [Union’s] goal to enhance the student community, but if they won’t help us with this initiative, we’re going to get it done anyways,” Rebecchi said.
Ahmed said Union members see the creation of a parliament as an issue involving the power structure and the work it will take to establish the group.
“The existing members are viewing the addition of a parliament as a power issue, but it’s really not about that. It’s about the student groups getting together and coming up with great ideas,” Ahmed said. “They need to get over the logistics.”
Proponents of this proposal said they believe it will greatly benefit the students of BU.
Union’s existing structure is organized by residences and colleges, which does not encompass the entirety of student’s lives on campus, Rebecchi said.
“The idea that the Student Union has so few people representing so many students does not seem to be working for them,” Duan said.
Several of Union executive board members declined to comment on the proposal.
“There is so much up for change right now, that it is hard to foresee what will become of this parliament proposal,” said College of Communication sophomore Sophie Miller, Union’s vice president of internal affairs.
Nevertheless, Duan said that she has found a lot of support from student groups.
“I think it is long overdue,” she said. “It’s an idea that people support.”
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I feel like my first comment was erased. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, and I’ll try again.
‘Plan B’ is not to talk to administration. ‘Plan B’ is to get the parliament in place outside of Student Union, as an independent, and quite frankly more representative, form of student governance.
Further, as a (sort-of) non-Union official lead negotiator in the matter, I was surprised to read that Union will vote on the proposal in January. I was unaware. This is not directed at the writer (Amy, you’re awesome, keep up the good work), but I think it represents a lack of discourse between Union and the students who are organizing this parliament.
I think Tarif makes a good point about power politics. I remember, quite vividly, a Senator telling me at the last Student Union meeting that “more people = less per-capita voice, and less people = better representation”. The question I have, is less voice for whom? The student body as a whole, or the individual senators?
To any students who understand how important a Student Parliament is, and want to get involved in the process of organizing it, e-mail me at Lreb1992@bu.edu.
Question for Parliament proponents: why not overhaul Student Union and make it more representative? Why does there need to be a second governing body. Although I agree that the parliament idea would be more inclusive in its organization, but it would only decentralize BU students even more. As of right now, we already have Student Union, individual school governments, RHAs, IFC, Panhel, etc. Just a thought
insightful