Bill requests replacement constitution

A bill asking for the replacement of the current IU Student Association Constitution with an entirely new one will be presented to the IUSA Congress Thursday night at its first meeting of the semester. \nCongress will vote on whether or not to allow students to vote on a new constitution on the election ballot for 2002-2003. If affirmed, the new constitution would not be effective until the 2003-2004 election year. \nPaul Musgrave, associate director of IUSA Student Rights, wrote the new constitution. He said over the past semester, various members of IUSA have spoken about and discussed the weaknesses of the current constitution. \n"One of the things we kept talking about was how bad the constitution was and how it needed to be changed," Musgrave said.\nIUSA Student Body President Jake Oakman agreed that the current constitution contained "ambiguities." Musgrave said it was unclear and dealt unnecessarily with trivial matters. \n"(The new constitution is) going to take out everything that's there and replace it with a new one," Musgrave said.\nOne issue discussed in the proposed constitution is the role of IUSA executives within Congress. \n"If you have a weak executive, you'll have a weak Congress," Musgrave said about the existing constitution. "If you have a strong executive, you'll have a strong Congress." \nHe said the proposal "lets the executives concentrate on being executives," and allows Congress a larger voice. \nMusgrave also appealed that the number of congressional seats be reduced from 72 to 50. He said this change would make Congress smaller and allow members to get to know each other better. \nThe proposed constitution also restructures the executive board so there is a president, vice president and treasurer, eliminating the position of vice president of Congress. The VPC currently runs Congress sessions. \n"The VPC is a part of the executive board," said James Motter, representative from the Kelley School of Business and a co-sponsor of the bill. "The VPC is not in Congress, so why should he run it?" \nEliminating the position of VPC would allow the IUSA Congress more control over its meetings, allowing the president pro tempore to run the sessions. The president pro temp is elected from within the Congress. \n"It will make our organization run a lot more efficiently," Oakman said. "It will give a stronger voice to Congress." \nMusgrave said a stronger Congress would help change the role of IUSA within the IU community. \n"If you have a strong Congress, you'll have a strong student government," Musgrave said. "If you have strong student government, you'll have strong student involvement.\n"If you have strong student involvement, then the administration is going to listen to us, and we're going to have some changes on this campus"