Clearly, constitution’s length not underlying problem

By Thresher Editorial Board     4/5/17 8:00am

At this point we are beating a dead horse. While we understand that Justin Onwenu’s administration is only just gaining its foothold and that mistakes can happen, the Thresher is frustrated by the regularity with which constitutional violations seem to occur at the Student Association (see p. 2). The previous SA administration told us the constitution’s length precluded SA members from following it. And yet here we are, with a much shorter constitution, but facing the same set of procedural problems. If the SA cares so deeply about the constitution that they’re willing to go through the pains to revise it, then why do they continue to completely disregard it? Further, that Onwenu and interim parliamentarian Annabelle McIntire-Gavlick faced such a breakdown in communication to the point where Onwenu did not realize that McIntire-Gavlick no longer considered herself the parliamentarian is alarming. (The Thresher informed Onwenu that McIntire-Gavlick was not the parliamentarian after the Senate meeting on Monday.) Thus, not only is there no advising occurring on constitutional procedure, there is no opportunity for such advising given that the position is apparently vacant. Frankly, the Thresher would much, much prefer not to have a weekly constitutional violation beat in its paper. These violations are ultimately a waste of time, and prevent both the SA and the Thresher from addressing much more pressing and pertinent issues around campus.

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