The senate discussed changes that are being applied to the ASCWU Constitution. The position of Vice President for academic affairs will be removed and replaced with the position of Senate Speaker. The senators, which have previously represented each department at CWU, will now represent the different colleges within CWU, along with other areas such as Disability Services, Athletics and sustainability.

“While [VP of academic affairs] is going away, it’s, in my opinion, being replaced by something that’s much better,” Mejia said. “Currently, I oversee the Student Academic Senate, and the Student Academic Senate, while they wish to discuss issues that are not pertaining to academics, such as sustainability or L&L, that is not really within my role as vice president of academic affairs.”

The constitutional changes also involve possibly removing the position of vice president of clubs and organizations, which is currently held by Ashley Klippert. If removed from ASCWU, the position would be moved to the student involvement office.

“The majority of the work that clubs and orgs used to do has been pretty much taken over by student involvement,” Mejia said. “A lot of it has to do with budgets and money allocation.”

In the current ASCWU Constitution, recalling someone from office is a hard process to initiate. In the new ASCWU Constitution, there would be a simple way to remove someone from office. With the approval of the majority of the board, 75% of the senate, or 40% of the students that voted in the previous election, it will now be possible to remove someone from their position in office.

Another change in the ASCWU Constitution is the amount of students that can begin an initiative on campus. In the previous edition of the ASCWU Constitution, it would take 1200, or 10% of students to begin an initiative. In the new ASCWU Constitution, it will only take 600, or 5% of students to begin an initiative. The example given at the SAS meeting was that if 600 students wanted to propose an initiative to open a new sustainability office in the SURC, there’s a possibility they could. 

One of the smaller changes is the consistency of wording in the constitution, like using acronyms versus the full name of an organization. Another change related to wording was being more careful about the language used in the constitution, specifically words such as “require” and “all.” These words are being changed to give some leeway to students that are unable to make it to a meeting for a valid reason so they are not impeached.