ASB Vice President Morgan Gregory counts votes during a ASB Senate meeting earlier this year. Photo: Thomas Graning, The Daily Mississippian.
The Associated Student Body senators passed a constitutional amendment last Tuesday to extend ASB office terms by one month. Students will vote either in favor or negation of the amendment on their MyOleMiss accounts before casting their vote in today’s elections.
The constitution previously stated that elections were to be held the third week in February. The constitution also stated that the inauguration would be held in March, at least one month after the election. The amendment is slated to change the constitution to hold elections the fourth week of March and inaugurate the newly elected officers no later than one month after the election.
ASB Vice President Morgan Gregory said she wrote the amendment to make the most effective use of the officers’ and senators’ time.
“Coming into office, my biggest priority was to bring efficiency to the legislative branch,” Gregory said. “The way the spring and fall election cycles were overlapping made for more time spent in transition than spent in office working for the students. It became most obvious that it was time for a change when some of our most important and publicized decisions were made in the midst of this long transition period, scrambling to reach quorum and trying to fill open seats.”
Gregory said she worked with the Governmental Operations Committee as well as the Constitutional Committee to write the amendment. She said she and the other ASB officers have been meeting since November to determine how to make the terms in office most successful.
“We’ve been meeting since November and have hashed out every single option,” Gregory said. “This is by far the best for every branch. The senators were all in support and spoke very highly of how they saw this to be of benefit to the future productivity of the branch.”
Since the piece of legislation is a constitutional amendment, it had to pass through senate two times. The amendment first came to the senate floor Feb. 4. It passed unanimously both times it came before the senators.
Senator and Governmental Operations Committee member Amy Hall said that passing the amendment will give the senators more time to work on legislation.
“With the amendment, the senate will have an extra month of valuable time to pass bills and resolutions that it would not otherwise have,” Hall said. “The amendment passed in the ASB Senate unanimously, and we hope that the students will pass it as well in the election Tuesday.”
Senator Rod Bridges said he thinks postponing the elections will benefit the senate by helping it run more smoothly.
“We lose a sense of fluidity and consistency to everything ASB Senate has been working on throughout the term,” Bridges said. “With her bill there will be no more disjunction, and we can continue to serve Ole Miss effectively.”
— Allison Slusher
thedmnews@gmail.com
