The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, September 16, 1983 Page: 2 of 8
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entary
The North Texas Dally
Page 2
Friday, September 16,1983
Editorials
Representing reality
Electoral reorganization is a puzzle past Student Asso-
ciations seemed unable to solve.
Whether because of pereonality conflicts, an unwillingness
to let go of power or paranoia about the result of a new
electoral system, the representatives have refused attempts
to revise NT’s ridiculous electoral system.
SA President Lee Ann Woods says the system works
but needs change.
The system doesn't work, because it is not a true rep-
resentative democracy, and the change called for is
reconstruction.
The reasoning supporting reconstruction is telling. Un-
der the current system, SA representatives do not repre-
sent students, colleges and schools are represented in unfair
proportions, and the SA is seen as being so unresponsive
to students some positions remain unfilled each year.
• SA representatives are not accountable to anyone at
present; in fact, they are not representatives at all. Be-
cause they are elected at-large, they—in theory—voluntarily
represent some portion of the more than 20,000 students.
But identifying which portion of the student body any
one representative is truly responsible to is impossible.
• At-large elections held under the current system do
not create a cross-section of student representatives. At
this time, 14 of 27 SA representatives are business ma-
jors, while only 4,200 NT students are business majors.
And more than half the assembly was absent from the
Wednesday meeting; most to attend formal bid acceptance
for NT fraternities and sororities.
• The current SA constitution allows for six representa-
tives for residence halls. Only three are now in office.
When the constitution was written and ratified, there was
no Residence Hall Association. But since RHA was formed,
the SA residence hall representatives are no longer neces-
sary to settle residence halls matters. The residence halls
solve their problems within their own organization.
The solution to these problems lies in electoral repre-
sentation through academic schools and departments. Such
a plan will not be difficult to implement. Students will
vote in the schools of their announced degree; students
who are undecided about their major will elect represent-
atives from the College of Arts and Sciences.
The time for naming committees and search panels is
long past. Electoral representation through schools and
departments is used successfully at UT-Arlington, Texas
A&M and Texas Tech, and any student government from
any of these universities could supply enough practical
information to guarantee implementation of revised vot-
ing practices before the next SA general election.
Woods and the SA should move to provide revised vot-
ing immediately. Failing that, students have the option to
provide for electoral reorganization through their consti-
tutionally guaranteed right of legislative initiative.
usot he«,»u arts!!
WE’RE HERE ON A
PEACEKEE0N6 MISSION,
m If YOU D0MT STOP
SWELLING US uie'Rf GCWWA
blow your brains out///
WOUli
WHAiT a
G&AT MOMIEI
1 HATE TO
M$T VouR
COLLEGIATE BUgglE,
W I THINK 'THAT^S
THE RIAL woKux
NOtatt TEXAS chic/
Outlook
Campus voter reorganization
TWE UHWWSOY, W AH AWt TO AVOID
ttmAwr* cokte^s ofm m, is sewatHCi
KfcA (AgWOD OESELECme) student
association csrms, is inherentw
tote of m
TOE BC01.
HANEYS any siKWEStiae?.
“DOVIHdr?!”
twn!!
Stuoettr scoy1
Student Association's goals
serve to link students
r-phe North Texas Student Association is the official
J. legislative body designed to represent NT students.
As mandated in the SA constitution, the association is
composed of a president, a vice president, a secretary
and 38 representatives. Currently, 27 representatives are
seated in the SA; 11 positions are unfilled.
members may serve as long as they are enrolled at NT.
The court has jurisdiction over SA policies and rules. The
SA constitution does not specify whether or not the asso-
ciation is bound to the decisions of the court .The judges
are subject to impeachment.
The SA constitution provides for a presidentially ap-
pointed student advocate to advise the SA on legal matters.
THE SA CONSTITUTION provides for the student-
body election of 19 representatives each long semester to
serve one-year terms. Elected representatives begin serv-
ing in the next long semester after the election. With the
approval of the assembly, the president appoints SA rep-
resentatives to serve on the summer council.
The president and vice president are elected by the stu-
dents during the spring semester for one-year terms. The
SA constitution does not place a limit on the number ot
terms an executive officer or representative may serve.
THE SA HAS four internal committees: Finance, Rules
and Elections, Special Projects and External Affairs. The
president appoints members to the internal committees.
The SA also sponsors 22 university committees which
specialize in various aspects of university life. SA mem-
bers and NT students who are not members of SA may
apply for positions on the university committees. The pres-
ident may also appoint members to the university
committees,
The SA supreme court consists of five students appointed
by the president with the assembly's approval. The court
STUDENT SERVICES that the SA provides include
an apartment guide and the Metrophone, a telephone serv-
ice to Dallas or Fort Worth for a 25-cent charge. The
Metrophone is on the third level of the Union.
SA president Lee Ann Woods said Wednesday that she
wants to expand the SA's role.
“In the past the administration has not looked at the
needs of students as closely as possible," Woods said.
"1 want to otfer more things that may not fall in line with
the governing duty of SA, but that will help students."
Woods said she was also planning a workshop titled
“Students in Politics.”
“The workshop will be in conjunction with the upcom-
ing election, which 1 feel will be a very important elec-
tion,” Woods said. "We plan to have a big voter reg-
istration drive and a professor from the political science
department talk about how students can get involved in
the political system." she said.
Woods said she also wants to conduct panel sessions
between representatives from various NT administrative
offices and students.
By JACQUE JOHNSON
and DENISE KOHN
Staff Writers
T)assing an electoral reorganization a-
A rnendment is SA President Lee Ann
Woods' major goal for the year, she said,
because the election system is outdated and
needs change.
' Anyone looking at the current system
would say it works, but not effectively,”
Woods, Baytown senior, said. "Constitu-
ents have no direct control over represent-
atives and members have no one to take
into account when making decisions.”
Article II of the SA constitution outlines
the assembly's composition as follows:
• One representative will be the president
of the SA or his designated representative,
who votes only to break a tie;
• Four representatives will be graduate
students elected by the student body;
• Six representatives will be students re-
siding in the university resident halls elected
by the student body;
• Twenty-eight representatives will be
students elected at large by the student body;
• Two faculty representatives will be se-
lected by the Faculty Senate;
• One administrative representative will
be appointed by the president of the
university.
NORTH TEXAS’ system of electing rep-
resentatives differs from most other major
universities throughout the state. Student
government organizations at SMU, Texas
A&M, Texas Tech. UT-Arlington and the
University of Houston all elect students to
serve as representatives from the colleges
and schools on their campuses, rather than
through at-large elections.
For instance. A&M has a student gov-
ernment organization of 33 members from
various departments to represent 36,000 stu-
dents. Additional members are elected to
represent the residence halls and four off-
campus wards.
Texas Tech has representatives from each
college and three at-large representatives
elected by students with undeeided majors.
"We've done it this way for years,” Susan
Gaffney, Texas Tech Student Senate mem-
ber, said. "This year we just started using
computerized voting, and it works great.”
Attempts have been made to reorganize
NT's SA to make its electoral process simi-
lar to other universities. Last spring, NT’s
SA defeated an electoral reorganization bill
that called for this direct representation of
students by colleges and schools. The bill
changes Article II as follows:
• One representative will be the president
of the SA or his designated representative,
who votes only when his vote may change
the results;
• One representative seat per 500 students
(or a fraction thereof) from each school or
college's population. All colleges and
schools with fewer than 500 students will
be combined into one constituency;
• Two faculty representatives will be se-
lected by the Faculty Senate;
• One administrative representative will
be appointed by the president of the
university.
Although Woods said reorganization was
one of her goals as president, she was not
in favor of the bill that was proposed last
spring. “The amendment from last year I
couldn't have approved, because no clear-
cut decision had been made on how to work
the election.” she said.
BUT ONE of the authors of the bill,
David Henderson, Hurst junior, said the
foundation of the bill, representation by col-
leges and departments, is solid.
At least two bills for electoral reorgani-
zation will be presented to the assembly
this fall. Woods said. One bill will be the
revised bill from last year and one will be
a bill written by Dan Levy, Dallas senior.
Levy’s bill states that half of the SA’s
members would represent colleges and
schools on campus, and that the other half
would be representatives for students liv-
ing on- and off-campus. Every school or
college would have one representative, plus
an additional representative for every 1,500
full-time students enrolled.
In order to pass reorganization legislation.
Levy said he was willing to compromise.
"Maybe me and the other guys can sit down
and iron out our differences.”
SA electoral reorganization is not a new
idea. In spring 1981, a majority of mem-
bers approved a reorganization bill, but it
did not get the necessary two-thirds major-
ity to become part of the SA constitution.
The same thing happened in fall of 1981.
In spring 1982, it was passed by a two-
thirds majority, but it was vetoed by Mike
Player, who was SA president.
SA is one of the only voices students
have in the administration of NT. It serves
the important function of representing all
students to administration, staff and facul-
ty. In order to better fulfill its role, SA
needs to reform its own electoral process.
V
SA considers reorganization of election process
t
The North Texas Daily
67th Year North Texas State University Denton, Texas
Printed by the North Texas State University Printing Office
Southwestern Journalism Congress
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Letter Policy
\lr"ibrr of the
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The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, September 16, 1983, newspaper, September 16, 1983; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth723385/m1/2/: accessed April 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.