By: CHRISTINE GIVER
Staff Writer
Changes are possibly coming to the IU South Bend Constitution if students vote to pass the referendum this week. Andi Trowbridge, the secretary of SGA and the president of the Political Science Club, spoke passionately about the work that has been put into a revised version of the Constitution.
“It has been several years since it was revised and after long hours and lots of discussion and debate, we finally came up with a revised Constitution that passed the Senate”, she said, “We are going to publish a “cheat sheet” that will highlight the specific changes. The students themselves have to vote on it and it has to pass the student body before it actually becomes the law for the SGA.”
The SGA is the governing body of the IUSB students. They are responsible for handling a lot of the funding on campus and working with the Chancellor on various issues brought up by students.
“Some of the issues we are working with him right now on campus are investigating how to get the daycare back on campus and the 24-hour study we had last year,” Trowbridge said.
She said both of those issues are in preliminary discussions and no decisions have been made.
The SGA decides how much of the student activity fees are spent. All students pay the student activity fee. This fee funds student clubs and organizations, sports and The Preface. Clubs are able to go to SGA with funding requests for activities and events.
“Last year, the Latino Student Union had a very successful event with Pack the SAC, where they had pizza and games, and people were just able to come and have a good night,” Trowbridge said, “The student activity fee helped pay for that.”
This year, SGA is also placing a focus on increasing participation among the students. They have created several non-elected positions for the presidential cabinet. They are trying to get a student from each of the colleges at IUSB to represent their particular school’s interests.
The Political Science Club, which is not directly affiliated with the SGA, is a non-partisan group whose goal is to get students, faculty and staff politically and civically engaged.
“We just want the citizens of this country as a whole to use their voice and vote,” Trowbridge said.
Trowbridge said a lot of people don’t realize that their local government makes a lot of decisions about our everyday lives, though many people abstain from voting in local elections. The Political Science Club encourages students to better understand their local candidates so that they can make informed decisions when electing local officials.
The referendum is taking place Oct. 23 through 25, and copies of the revised Constitution will be available on campus.
“Please read the Constitution before you vote on it because having informed voters is key,” Trowbridge said.
