The USG moved within one step of enacting a constitutional amendment to better define the propriety and relevancy of campus-wide referenda at last night's Senate meeting, approving the amendment nearly unanimously. A two-thirds vote at next Sunday's meeting would ratify the amendment, since constitutional amendments require approval at two consecutive meetings.
Last night's vote comes on the heels of debate over the propriety of two referenda during the 2005-06 academic year, one in support of an amicus brief on gay marriage and the other in favor of the College Republicans-sponsored Student Bill of Rights.
The amendment gives the Senate the power to stop any referenda it deems "frivolous" from appearing on campus-wide ballots, even if it has garnered the requisite student signatures for a referendum to get on the ballot. The Senate would only be able to exercise this power with a five-sixths majority.
"Bringing up silly referenda weakens the power of the USG," president Alex Lenahan '07 said after the meeting. "We have serious issues to discuss and it detracts from our credibility to waste time ... on something someone's going to put on [the ballot] as a joke."
Debate, led last spring by former U-Councilors Brandon Parry '06 and Jeremy Johnson '07, focused on the propriety of referenda and the ease with which frivolous referenda could be brought before students.
Johnson, in an effort to prove his point, collected close to 200 signatures in support of a referendum that would require Lenahan to run naked through Frist Campus Center every Sunday.
The amendment will still make such a referendum possible, but it would take the support of one-third of the undergraduate body to override a Senate decision deeming a particular referendum without merit.
Under the current terms of the constitution, for a referendum to appear on a ballot at the same time as usual USG elections, it must have the support of one-third of the Senate or a petition of 200 undergraduates. For a referendum to be put before the student body when there is no immediately upcoming USG election, it must have the support of two-thirds of the Senate or 400 undergraduates.
The Senate also discussed senator Josh Weinstein '09's progress in reforming late meal.
Weinstein motioned for the meeting to go into executive session to discuss late meal, requiring the half-dozen nonvoting people in attendance, including a reporter from The Daily Princetonian, to leave the room for about five minutes.
"After last week's 'Prince' article," Weinstein said. "I just thought it would be good to have this discussion limited."
At the Sept. 24 Senate meeting, Weinstein loudly expressed his frustration about the USG's ineffectiveness in changing the late meal program for students with meal plans but retracted his statements after talking with Lenahan and USG vice president Rob Biederman '08. The incident was reported in the 'Prince.'
Lenahan, after the Senate meeting, said it "wasn't exactly necessary to go into executive session but [Weinstein] thought it was."
"We essentially discussed why we didn't need to be in executive session while we were in executive session," Lenahan said.
When the meeting reopened, Weinstein discussed potential changes to late meal.
In a trial run this Wednesday and Thursday, late dinner will start half an hour earlier than it has so far this fall, at 8:30 p.m., and continue until 10:30 p.m. Currently, late dinner begins at 9 p.m, meaning that underclassmen are unable to get meals for an hour between the end of service in dining halls and the beginning of service in Frist.
Whether the new start time becomes permanent will depend on how many students use late meal in its first half hour and whether that reduces the number of students entering the college dining halls during their final 30 minutes of serving time.
Though the trial run is an improvement over the current 9 p.m. start time, USG officials agreed, it is still not the 8 p.m. start that was in place before this year. "First, our goal is 8:30," Biederman said after the meeting, "but then back to 8."
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