Shelnutt Vetoes Constitutional Changes

By Connect Mason Reporter Rachael Dickson

UPDATE (11:14 p.m.): Student Senate Overrides Veto, Approves Constitution

Originally, it was planned that students tomorrow would vote not only on student body president and student senators, but also on the changes to the Student Government Constitution developed by Student Senate’s Constitutional Review Committee. However, now that the constitutional changes, which passed in the Senate, have been vetoed by Student Body President Drew Shelnutt, that plan is in limbo.

Shelnutt officially vetoed the changes at 3 p.m. today. In order for the proposed constitutional changes to appear on the ballot tomorrow, the Student Senate must override the presidential veto with a 2/3 vote of those present at a special meeting taking place at 10 p.m. tonight in the Student Government office.

He cited the lack of time spent on the changes as a reason for his veto.

“We basically had a constitutional review committee set up, not at the beginning, but fairly close to the beginning of the year,” Shelnutt said. “Not really much happened with it until later on in second semester. It’s really just the last two months where the constitution has been worked on. I feel like there are a lot of things in the past version of the constitution that wouldn’t have gotten in there if people had actually put the time into reading the document and really seen what was there.”

In addition, Shelnutt disliked the fact that the constitutional changes would dissolve the Student Supreme Court and create a new Elections and Disputes Committee in its place.

“I thought the reasons why [the Supreme Court would be] dissolved weren’t necessarily the best,” Shelnutt said. “The dissolving of it wasn’t necessarily the best solution to those problems.”

Copy of proposed constitution courtesy of Student Senate