IUSA Congress meets to discuss Katrina relief, revamping bylaws

The IU Student Association Congress discussed the athletics fee, faculty reaction to President Herbert's decision on the chancellor search and revamping IUSA bylaws in its fifth meeting of the year, held Tuesday night in the Kelley School of Business. No legislation was voted upon. \nIUSA President Alex Shortle said he would try to attend an emergency meeting to be held by the Bloomington Faculty Council next Tuesday, though he said it may be limited to tenured faculty only. \n"I'll be there," he said. "If I have to climb through the roof, so be it." \nShortle also said that though a decision had been reached concerning the removal of the mandatory athletics fee, he is hopeful that some IUSA input will still be considered. \n"I think it was partly my fault for being slow-moving on this," he said. "Hopefully we can get something done about the loss of seats in Assembly Hall and whether or not we can get a student section." \nIUSA Vice President Will Leckey read a report from Katie Schluntz, co-director of volunteer support for IUSA. Schluntz is overseeing a trip that will take place from Dec. 17 to Dec. 22 to help residents of Biloxi, Miss., who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The report stated that 216 faculty and students had signed forms and made payments to participate in the trip, and more requests were still coming in. Students interested in attending the trip can contact Schluntz at kschlunt@indiana.edu.\nShortle also spoke about a current effort to "revamp" the IUSA bylaws. Because of the annual turnover involved in IUSA, Shortle said increasing the strength of the documents would make IUSA stronger. \n"We really need to start living by our documents," he said. \nCurrently, the bylaws govern departments within IUSA that no longer exist, such as the safety escort and faculty review departments. Shortle also said the bylaws haven't been updated since 1999 and do not include a process for making directorship appointments. \n"That needs to be ironed out so there's a systematic way to do that," he said. "It's just appoint as you please." \nCongress's next meeting will take place at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 29 in Room 211 of the Business school.