ASG overhaul forum
A proposal to introduce a vice president position to Associated Student Government became a hot-button issue Thursday, as a discussion about changes in ASG’s structure, constitution and code lingered for more than two hours in Norris University Center.
Led by President Neal Sales-Griffin, ASG’s executive board presented “Operations Manual: The unofficial guide to the new ASG,” to more than 20 students in Norris’ Lake Room in an open talk on ASG’s new grand strategy. Proposals included new positions, redistributed roles, committee changes and amendments to ASG’s code and constitution. The proposed structure replaces its “rigid,” “inefficient” and “convoluted” precursor with “the intuitive, the effective and the concise,” the preface to the manual says.
“It’s a much easier reference for all the students to understand how we function, what we can do for you, and what our purpose is,” said Sales-Griffin, who struggled to understand the current constitution but learned “a lot more about ASG than we had known” while revising the document with the executive board.
The new program provides three new positions: a vice president to relieve the president and the executive vice president of some duties; a director of human resources; and a director of research and development. The proposal introduces nominal changes to the positions of the financial vice president, the executive committee and the treasurer, and envisions a new Senate format.
But it was the role of vice president that raised most arms and triggered most questions, interruptions and hushes. According to the new program, the Vice President will serve as an “administrator liaison,” a “connector”, a “switchboard” and a “filter” for the “get it done” machine, which includes Student Services, Academic Affairs, External Relations, and Research and Development committees. But according to ASG Executive Vice President Vikram Karandikar, the new position will simply channel some of the functions that overwhelm him and Sales-Griffin.
“This is a call for help,” Karandikar said. “The job I do already is so involved and so heavy with student groups that by the time I get to fulfilling my duties as a vice president, I’m spent. I need help as much as this organization needs help.”
While the proponents of the bill maintained that the new vice president is all about flexibility and efficiency, students in the audience asked whether this “new level of bureaucracy is justified” and whether it will pass the two-thirds majority at the Senate meeting next week.
“This is not necessarily adding bureaucracy,” said Sales-Griffin, who has been working together with the executive board on the new program for the past four weeks. “Yes, you’d be adding another body, but it would be for the greater good because right now we are spreading ourselves to the point that we can’t get it done.”
A few students proposed ad hoc positions, instead, to preserve the integrity of the constitution, which they called “sacred.” Concerns over permanent changes to the document led some to suggest amendments to ASG’s code only.
“My concern has always been – is it constitutional to amend the constitution, to throw all these things out there without trying them out first?” said Weinberg junior Hari Vijay, who stayed for the whole discussion and was a candidate this year for student services vice president.
Discussion also lingered about the role of the research and development committee as well as issues that previous Boards could not get round to.
“There are so many sticky issues and we want to deal with them now,” Karandikar said.
ASG has to put the new program into place by the end of this quarter so that it can use its two remaining quarters to enact the changes, Sales-Griffin told a smaller audience at the end of the forum.
The new manual operates under the mantra “One Northwestern,” in unison with ASG’s mission to unify the Northwestern student body, which Sales-Griffin described as “segmented.”
“The root cause is not a marketing campaign, the root cause is not a logo,” he concluded. “The root cause is showing students that ASG actually works for them.”
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