It has become apparent that the Residence Halls Association has some serious restructuring to do, and it may take authoritative oversight to accomplish that.

RHA’s plight is mainly a result of its lack of organization, and the continued misinterpretation of its quorum by association officials.

Quorum refers to the number of representatives who must be present to vote on issues. RHA’s constitution says that number is “two-thirds of voting members of the general assembly.”

This means that there should be two-thirds of the total membership and representation of RHA, which is at least 26 of its 39 representatives.

The constitution does not say this is based on the number of representatives present at previous meetings. Based on the attendance of the past several RHA meetings, this would require only about 20 members to be present and vote on issues.

This definitely goes against the standard that was instituted for the good of RHA.

Any organization that will twist its own governing constitution to better suit the current situations of its own members instead of for the greater good obviously needs some restructuring. There should be some sort of change to prevent issues like these from going any further.

RHA also has been irresponsible in other aspects of its organization.

The association spent all of the $82,500 budgeted for its movies program for the entire semester by midterms.

There should be some sort of committee or system in place that oversees the operations of RHA to make sure it is following its rules and remaining organized.

Judging from its actions this semester, it is clear RHA is not a student government that can function well on its own without supervision.

With some restructuring and, more importantly, with continued input and regulation from an overseeing authority, RHA could be back on the track it desperately needs to be on.

The nearly 14,500 students who pay $21 in taxes each semester to the organization deserve better.