The Constitutional Review Committee released its report Sunday proposing changes to the structure of the Student Union, club funding and election procedures. The proposals will be voted on by the student body March 18, according to Jessica Steinberg '10, the committee's chair.The report was presented to the Student Union Senate Sunday night, where each of the 11 proposed amendments received at least the 10 votes necessary to put it up for a vote by the student body.

According to Article XIII, Section 1 of the current Student Union Constitution, "Every four years there shall be established an independent Constitutional Review Task Force charged with conducting a full review of all aspects of the Union, including the operation of clubs, Secured Organizations, and Union Government."

The committee, which which had its first meeting Nov. 14, 2009, has been discussing proposals and holding town hall meetings for students to voice their opinions. The committee is composed of students from various constituencies, such as secured groups, the Senate, community advisors, artistic and performance organizations and religious organizations.

The report proposes a change to what is currently the Student Union Senate, which would be renamed the "Student Union Assembly." According to the recommendations, the positions of senators representing residence quads would be eliminated. The Assembly would be composed of two representatives from each class year, one representative for midyears, one for students in the Transitional Year Program, a renamed Racial Minority Senator who would represent "historically underrepresented races" and two senators-at-large. The Assembly would function in a similar way to the current Senate, but it would no longer be responsible for matters involving clubs; a Club Support Board would be added to handle those matters.

Regarding the change from the name "Racial Minority Senator" to "Representative for Historically Underrepresented Races," Steinberg said that the term "racial minority . can often be taken in a negative way, so they wanted to institute a name change to make it a little clearer and also a little bit more modern."

According to Kenta Yamamoto '10, the committee's representative from the intercultural community, "I think that the reason why people didn't like it was because of the minority part, and how the position was designated to deal with racial minority issues." He went on to say that the term racial minority "has a derogatory notion to it, as opposed to historically underrepresented, because . you could have been underrepresented in the past."

Also proposed is the formation of a Club Support Board, which would, according to the report, take responsibility for "matters pertaining to Union Accredited Organizations," including recognizing, chartering, de-recognizing and de-chartering clubs. The Club Support Board would be composed of members from eight club categories such as service, performance and academics and one Union Executive board member, each of whom would be elected by the student body as a whole.

Other recommendations to the Student Union include changing the election of the Vice President to an internal election within the Assembly instead of a vote of the student body, changing the name of the Union Judiciary to the "Student Judiciary" and the appointment of a Public Defender to argue cases in the Student Judiciary.

The committee also proposed a definition for secured clubs: "those organizations that the student body recognizes as fundamental to the mission of the university." The report recommended securing Student Sexuality Information Service and Students for Environmental Action.

"FBoard funding allows SSIS to subsidize the costs of safer sex products to make them affordable for college students," wrote Matt Shear '11, coordinator of SSIS, in an e-mail to the Justice. He added, "SSIS is integral to Brandeis University. Securing SSIS affirms the importance of community sexual health, and ensures SSIS remain a vital part of each student's education at Brandeis."

"Secured funding would enable [SEA] to bring key speakers with innovative messages to further educate the student body ... Secured funding from F-Board would also allow SEA to better publicize a host of current sustainable matters to more effectively target students about the relevancy of these issues to their respective interests," wrote SEA President Hannah Saltman '12 in an e-mail to the Justice.

Another recommendation would eliminate the current procedure of holding runoff elections days after the primary round in favor of instant runoff voting. In this new format, students would indicate their first choice for a position and have the option to rank other candidates. After the primary round, the secretary would retabulate votes if no candidate receives a majority of primary votes.

According to Student Union President Andy Hogan '11, "I'm really excited for the changes to the structure of the Union government. I think it'll make the Union run much more efficiently." Steinberg wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the committee will hold an information session for the student body about the proposed amendments next week.

For a summary of the proposed constitutional amendments, click here.