Student Assembly

R.11 Voting Rights for Members of the Undergraduate Community

“The Community Clause 2.0”

Whereas, the Preamble of the Student Assembly Charter states that the Student Assembly will “effect more extensive involvement in campus governance.”
Whereas, the Student Assembly seeks to further engage the undergraduate student community all issues relating to undergraduate student life at Cornell University.
Be it therefore resolved:
The following changes are made to the Student Assembly charter:
3.1 Composition
The SA will consist of 23 voting members, who are registered undergraduate students at Cornell University. Add: [Two additional votes will be allocated to all undergraduate members of the Cornell community present at a Student Assembly meeting pursuant to Bylaw 3.1.d.] Eleven voting members of the SA will be elected by and from the student populations of the colleges and schools, one from each: the College of Architecture, Art and Planning; the School of Hotel Administration; the College of Human Ecology; and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
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Add:
Bylaw 3.1.d (The Community Clause)
i. Should there only be one undergraduate ex-officio non-elected member in attendance, he or she will only be allocated one vote.
ii. The community clause may only be exercised on final votes of sense-of-body resolutions pursuant to Bylaw 1.3.a.4, which excludes (1) funding and budgetary decisions, (2) amendments to the SA Charter and Standing Rules, (3) the ability to make motions, (4) creation/dissolution of committees (5) selection of officers, committee members, and liaisons from the popularly elected SA (i.e. allocation of the Student Activity Fee, SAFC appeals, approval of Parliamentarian, Liaison to the Provost, etc.).
iii. At the beginning of each Student Assembly meeting, members of the community will present their Cornell IDs to the Parliamentarian. The Parliamentarian will record all undergraduate community members present within 15 minutes of the meeting’s call to order. Prior to the final vote of a resolution, qualifying members of the community will be permitted to cast their vote. The two votes within the community clause will be allocated consistently with the simple majority of the community members present. In the event of a tie, the two votes will be split on the issue.

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Bylaw 4.1.b
A Parliamentarian shall be nominated by the President and affirmed by a majority of the SA voting members. The Parliamentarian need not be an SA member. The office of Parliamentarian holds no special voting privileges. The Parliamentarian also may not hold the President or Executive Vice President positions. The Parliamentarian shall advise the President on questions of parliamentary procedure. The Parliamentarian shall enforce and administer The Community Clause of the Student Assembly charter.

Ola Williams, ‘10
At-Large Representative
Student Assembly Executive Vice President
Roneal Desai ‘13
Freshman Representative