The University of Tampa Student Government has undergone significant change internally in the last year, change that veteran SG members say they had never seen previously in all their time at the university.

This year, SG will be operating under a brand new constitution, approved by the general assembly on March 31 and recently approved by president Ronald Vaughn the week before fall semester began.

“Nothing is similar to what we had,” said Kelsie Huth, SG president.  “I don’t know the last time the constitution was changed so much.”

Huth said every SG executive board has always had ideas in mind, but it took until last year to really begin change.

Construction of the constitution began in Feb. while SG was under the leadership of past president Andrew Learned.
“Andrew led the charge for having the new constitution,” said Huth.

Last year, before working on the new constitution, SG established student committees, groups working to write resolutions about university issues they felt were of concern.

Introducing committees was one of the first steps that moved SG forward in an attempt to involve more of the student body.

More student involvement is what SG is hoping to see come out of the new constitution.

“This [constitution] gives all the power to the students,” Huth said.

The constitution completely revised the organization of SG.  No longer does SG have an executive board.

Now, there is an executive council made up of the president, vice president, speaker of the assembly and chief of the judicial advisory branch.

The executive branch consists of cabinet members chosen by the executive council.

“As executive council members, anything we want to do has to go through the committees,” Huth said.
“Everyone has input.  It’s not just one speaking for many.”

The committees are part of the legislative branch of SG.

Currently, there are five committees: finance, academic affairs, social concerns, campus involvement and residential and commuter life.

All students can be involved in any of these committees.

There is a judicial branch, and a legislative branch consisting of the general assembly and a new student senate, consisting of 14 students.

“It’s for checks and balances purposes in SG and for living by the constitution,” said Mark Kieslor, SG chief of the judicial advisory board.

Added Huth, “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t one person in a room making decisions.”

Because of SG’s new system, there are many more positions in the organization this year.

According to Huth, there are about 35 officers between committee chairs, senators, executive council, judicial advisory board and the cabinet.

“We’re really approachable,” Huth said.  “There are a lot more officers this year that can help with student concerns.”

Also new is that SG will no longer hold regular general assembly meetings on Tuesday nights.

Instead, committee meetings will be held at this time.

At least twice a semester, however, SG will have general assembly meetings that include a state of the campus address.

“This is to make sure everyone comes together and knows what’s going on,” said Huth, whose first state of the campus address earlier in the semester included updating students on events that had taken place over the summer.

The new constitution took effect immediately this semester after Vaughn passed the document and bylaws.
Huth said the organization had to go through a few revisions before passing the document to Vaughn for approval.

The content of the document remained the same through the revisions and only some wording was changed.
“We tried to put a lot of interpretations to rest,” she said.

“We made sure it flowed well and was a concrete document,” added Kieslor.

Huth said SG is currently working on the issue of commuter parking, pushing for more than 70 commuter parking spots.

Huth and Kieslor both recommended students check out the SG website at utampasg.org to keep up-to-date on events and SG information.

Also on the website is a suggestion box for student comments.

“We’ve got some big plans for this year,” Huth said. “We want to make it so that SG benefits what students really want.”