A new constitution committee is in the works for Student Senate this year.

Student Body President Levi Bulgar originally was going to choose seven Student Senate members for the committee, but a few members had issues with the decision.

Senate member Drew Griffin is going to present a proposal to have any Student Senate member be able to be a part of the committee at an upcoming Student Senate meeting, Bulgar said.

The signers of this proposal are Student Senate members Chris Kromphardt; Eric Wilber, student executive vice president; Tiffany Turner, student vice president for business affairs; and Ryan Kerch, student vice president for student affairs.

Bulgar will also be involved with the new committee if Student Senate passes the proposal to have it set up.

“We are going to form a new way of doing the constitutional review,” Bulgar said. “We would have an unlimited number of people on it with senate approval.”

He said the constitution as it stands needs a little tweaking.

Student Senate members who are interested in being part of the committee would put their name onto the consent agenda and they will either be approved or denied by the Student Senate to be a part of the committee.

Bulgar has talked about changing the Student Body constitution for about two years.

“Last year, when I was student executive vice president, I found out that the student executive vice president was supposed to be an ex-officio, or non-voting member, of the Student Publications Board and the student vice president for business affairs a voting member and this had never been put into effect,” Bulgar said.

Bulgar added intricacies of the constitution were outdated such as the student vice president for business affairs is labeled as the student vice president for financial affairs.

Bulgar said right now, Student Senate is not 100 percent sure of what needs to be changed in the constitution.

“Right now it is just a lot of minor details,” he said. “As we review the constitution, there may be more substantial issues.”

Bulgar said that when the constitution is reviewed depends on when Griffin provides a proposal for the committee.

If the senate approves the new committee, the constitutional changes would go into effect in December.

Students would vote on the constitutional changes in the fall elections, which take place in December, and they would then be changed based on what the students wanted, Bulgar said.

“Also, constitutional amendments that were never voted on in the past, but that Student Senate passed, would have to be added to the fall referendum as well,” he said.

These were amendments like composition and adviser requirements to the Student Supreme Court.

Certain terms and titles were also outdated.

“There was a misinterpretation in there somewhere, however, so students did not get a chance to vote on these issues,” Bulgar said.

Bulgar said he hopes the potential changes to the constitution would be on the referendum in December.

“But if it was not ready by then, an urgent vote could be made,” Bulgar said. “Then, it could be brought to the students in either January or February instead of the end of the spring semester.”

He added the changes to the constitution would need to line up with bylaws in the Student Body Constitution and parts of the Internal Governing Policy.

“The internal governing policy supercedes everything else,” Bulgar said.

Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or at haholm@eiu.edu.