In two weeks, students will vote on a bill that could split the Student Government Association (SGA) into autonomous undergraduate and graduate branches. The bill is in an effort to remedy concerns that graduate students were not receiving proportional representation in student government.
After the 50th Legislature of SGA passed Bill 50sl19 in its final meeting last semester, the bill was slated for a University-wide referendum.
The SGA Communications team launched a website in conjunction with College Council (CC) administration to explain the bill, the referendum process and the transition timeline to students.
A simple majority of the student body must vote in favor of the bill to pass it in the University-wide referendum, which will be administered by the SGA Board of Elections. The bill passed 31-1-3 in the legislature, meeting the two-thirds majority of legislators required by the SGA Constitution to pass constitutional amendments. No changes will be made to the bill prior to referendum.
Should the bill pass, a recently released SGA Restructure and Transition Plan authored by the executive boards of the SGA and the Graduate Student Government Association (GSGA), proposes that the majority of the transition occur before the annual student government elections in March.
Several SGA leaders endorsed the split, including SGA President and College senior Max Zoberman and SGA Executive Vice President and Goizueta Business School junior Gurbani Singh.
The communications teams hosted the first of several town halls Monday to inform the community about the upcoming referendum, according to Zoberman. A calendar detailing the town halls is available on the referendum website.
“I would like to see — before [this referendum] is over — not just individual reps attending, but constituents themselves coming out,” Zoberman said.
The bill, which would split the current SGA into the Undergraduate Student Government Association (USGA) and the GSGA, was initially proposed last semester to address concerns about whether or not graduate students had proportional representation in SGA.
Students can vote in the referendum online from Jan. 29 at 8 p.m. to Jan. 31 at 8 p.m.
julia.munslow@emory.edu | Julia Munslow (18C) is from Coventry, R.I., majoring in English and creative writing. She joined the Wheel’s Board of Editors her freshman year as assistant arts & entertainment editor and served most recently as executive editor. This past summer, she covered national politics for Yahoo News. Her photos of the 2016 Trump chalkings protest won an SPJ Mark of Excellence for Breaking News Photography and were syndicated by national media organizations including The New York Times and Newsweek. In addition to the Wheel, she is an Interdisciplinary Exploration and Scholarship (IDEAS) Fellow, a member of Mortar Board and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa.
