After heated debate and negotiations, the Student Government Association Tuesday evening passed unanimously a new version of its constitution and its election rules through the association's Senate and House of Representatives.
Related: Amended constitution
Those surrounded in voting in the constitution were happy with the finished product.
"This is the best version of the constitution I've seen since I got here to Virginia Tech," said Jeremy Sutherland, speaker of the SGA House of Representatives
Those working on the constitution faced daunting challenges to create the finished document. The organization's current constitution, drafted in 2002 and last amended in May 2005, was brought down through years of disorganization.
"People were updating parts of the constitution but not the whole document," said Erica Swanson, associate justice of the SGA. As a result, portions of the constitution were out of order.
"Some of the policies and procedures that are in the old constitution do not exist any more," said Alex Miller, speaker of the SGA Senate. The constitution also helps deal with organizational growth, including the rise of projects including The Big Event and Relay for Life.
"The SGA has gotten much bigger over the past few years," Sutherland said. "This new constitution has grown to represent the size of the organization."
Also tackled in the new constitution is a balancing of powers between the organization's legislative, executive and judicial branches. One major area addressed in the new constitution is the balance of power in the judicial branch.
In the previous constitution, members of the legislative branch were also voted into judiciary positions, in essence allowing for single members to represent two branches of the SGA. In the new version, judiciary members are chosen separately from other branches.
Collaborating with different student groups to create the document, the SGA's judiciary went through countless drafts of the document before settling on a final version for the legislative branch to vote on. The new constitution was the product of months of intense work.
"I am so relieved. We put a lot of work into putting this new constitution together," Swanson said.
The new draft of the constitution will now be voted on during the executive and senatorial elections Mar. 31. Miller hoped the new constitution would inspire the student body to action.
"I hope students take the time to look through this constitution, and see how this organization runs," Miller said. "I hope this gets students out and active in their student government."