ASMSU’s Academic Assembly will do something the group has never done before - appoint a committee to revise its Code of Operations.
The assembly passed a bill last week creating the Academic Assembly Code Revision Committee, a five-person group that will meet as often as twice a week.
Adam Raezler, who introduced the bill, said recurring problems with the code’s language spawned the idea.
“Over the summer, (Academic Assembly Chairperson) Matt Clayson and (Vice Chairperson of Internal Affairs) Caleb Marker and I had been communicating, and we started to notice that it’s not real clear here and it contradicts itself over here,” said Raezler, the North American Indian Student Organization and James Madison representative for ASMSU. “We felt that the best way was to have a committee to do it.”
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
The committee has to make changes to the code and present it to the assembly at its Oct. 1 meeting. Committee members plan to hold their first meeting Thursday.
Once the revisions have been presented, the changes will be put in bill form for the assembly to vote on, Raezler said.
“The assembly has to approve everything,” he said.
There are two codes within ASMSU that direct how it functions internally - one for the Student Assembly and one for the Academic Assembly. The committee will revise only the Academic Assembly’s code.
Clayson said a committee like this is important to address the code’s problems.
“This is kind of revolutionary,” he said, adding that there are major flaws in the code that need to be ironed out. For instance, he said, “there is nothing that binds the chairperson’s decision to this assembly.”
ASMSU officials noted that they could theoretically purchase new couches without bringing the idea before the assembly first - something that has happened in the past.
“We bought the couches once, and we never plan on buying them again,” Raezler said.
But Raezler said there were many other problems with the code.
“There’s a whole lot of things that aren’t really explained,” he said.
“There are parts in the code that don’t outline certain power positions. The code, when you read it, was put together through different assemblies. It’s never really been tied all together and made clear.”
Social science representative Colleen Card will also be part of the committee. She said because the deadline for the revision is so early, it will encourage them to work harder.
“It’s very important to get the behind-the-scenes things done and out of the way,” Card said. “If we can get the little holes fixed, we can make it a little bit easier to follow.”
Raezler said the goal to make the code easier to follow was introduced by former ASMSU Director Charles Beachnau, who died in June.
“A lot of the past assemblies and sessions have been (focusing on) the external part of ASMSU,” Raezler said.
“None of them have really sat down and looked at the assembly internally. That’s what Charles had started to do.
“And if we have too many problems with the assembly itself, how can we function?”
