A special meeting of the Students’ Union council met on January 8 to amend their Constitution. There were ten items on the special agenda for consideration by the members.
Under the terms of the new constitution a special meeting of the council could be held with the view to correcting some of the small problems and typos that remained in the constitution when it was passed last year.
The first amendment removed an anomaly in the wording of the Constitution that allowed sabbatical officers of the Union the right not to give up the powers they had under the previous constitution. This amendment was passed unanimously.
Some of the other amendments were addressed to tidying up the routine errors in the document. Amendment four removed a mistake in the Constitution that allowed two employees of the Union votes at Council even though they were not necessarily students.
The Administrative Officer is responsible for the managing the office of the Students’ Union. The Technical Officer looks after the website and the technical requirements of the Union. They do not participate in the political element. Council voted in the motion removing their votes, but keeping their rights to attend and speak at meetings of council.
Council voted down a motion that would have changed the word ‘roll’ in section 3.5.6 ‘role’. The section pertains to the work of the Communications Officer. The motion noted that the ‘section is meant to outline his job, not his lunch.’
Schedule ten of the Students’ Union Constitution allowed a special meeting to amend the Constitution. The Schedule provided that only changes that did not change the spirit of the Constitution could be accepted.
Schedule ten could not be amended and after it was used it was to be deleted from the Constitution.
The new constitution was passed by the students in referendum on April 16 last year. The new constitution replaced the previous one which had been in use for two years.
It was drawn up by last year’s Education Officer, Hugh Sullivan under the direction of a constitutional review committee.
The Constitution brought in a new body in the Union, the Oversight Commission whose job is to check that union officers are complying with mandate and constitutional requirements.
