DePauw Student Government is wrapping up the year with requests to change the dynamics of the executive board. The plan comes in hope to increase efficiency for the next school year.
Assembly members representing each organization on campus attended student government's monthly assembly meeting Sunday night. During the meeting, assembly members were asked to vote on two separate constitutional amendments, which were both passed.
The first constitutional amendment will instate a Vice President of Community Relations. One of the officer's duties will be to regularly attend Greencastle City Council meetings in effort to learn ways for DePauw students to get more involved in the community. With the new position, DSG hopes to facilitate communication between the Greencastle community and students on campus.
Junior senate member Alison Caplinger said she thinks that this amendment is a great step in moving forward with the university's goal of forming a more positive relationship with the Greencastle community.
"It's really important that we continue to build the relations that we have with local businesses," Caplinger said.
The second amendment involves eliminating two existing government positions, Treasurer and Sergeant-arms. The amendment will consolidate both the Treasurer and Sergeant-arms duties' into various other executive positions such as president and vice president in order to run the student government executive more efficiently.
Student Body President, senior Sara Scully discussed another possible new amendment to be proposed during the next assembly meeting in May. Though still in its planning stages, if this amendment passes, some members of student government will be paid for their work.
Unlike DePauw, many other schools financially compensation student government officials. With the amount of time and responsibility that comes with an executive position, both Scully and Student Body Vice President senior Mark Fadel agree that compensation would make students less hesitant in applying for a position.
"We'll be talking about [the possible amendment] in the next month with both students on and off campus," Scully said. "We definitely want this to be a conversation between all members of the student body." Head of Allocations board, senior Stewart Burns, reminded the assembly that budgets are due to be heard by the allocations board on Thurs., April 25.
"How you allocate funds toward various requests is taken into consideration," Burns said. "It's important to be smart in the budget you're proposing."
As a final statement, assembly members were reminded that any student who wants to serve on the DePauw Student Government Executive Board for the 2013-2014 school year needs to submit an election packet by 4 p.m. tomorrow, April 10 to U.B. 210 and by email to marjoriedaily_2015@depauw.edu.