Committee proposes restructuring
of PSG
By Kurt Esposito
Assistant
Campus Editor
 If
the referendum to restructure the Purdue Student Government passes,
it would change senate representation in PSG from the system based on
housing to one based on academic schools.
"It is going to make PSG move smoother, but it's
also going to limit diversity in the senate," said Justin Glon, PSG
senator.
He said academic school based representation would
be selective and not all viewpoints would be heard.
The residence halls, the Greek system, co-operative
houses and the off-campus students would lose all of their seats. Each
academic school would be given two seats in the senate. The Graduate
Student Association, which now has nine seats, would only be given two
seats.
"The Greek system is willing to lose representation
if it results in the betterment of the entire student body," said Grant
Lohse, president of the Interfraternity Council. "Representation through
academic schools would allow the opinions of the students to be more
accurately determined."
Glon said representation in the senate should be
based on housing because most of students' concerns revolve around where
they live.
Heather Higgins, student body chief justice and
member of the internal review committee, said that even though the representation
would no longer be based on housing, the housing concerns of students
would still be heard.
Edie Cassell, PSG senator, said the proposed changes
are unfair because the graduate students would be underrepresented.
"That's going to hurt the graduate students," said
Cassell.
The recommendation to have representation based
on academic schools was proposed by the Internal Review Committee.
Mary Putsey, PSG senator and a member of the internal
review committee, said the decision to recommend to the new system was
proposed because PSG senators are not held accountable by their constituents,
and it would allow the organization to work more closely with the student
councils.
Milah Welker, president of the School of Management
council, said the changes would allow PSG to work more closely with
the student organizations. She said they would able to co-sponsor events
and therefore hold more of them.
"If PSG and the councils work together, than those
sorts things could be expanded," said Welker.
Under the proposed changes, all senators would
be voted upon during the student body elections.
Putsey said the committee decided to hold elections
for all senators because there was no uniform way for the senators to
be elected. She said the only groups that have a uniform way of electing
senators are the residence halls.
Maarten Rothman, PSG senator, said the elections
would be unfair to most students because the Greek system would dominate
the voting.
Glon said he is in favor of some parts of the recommendation,
but would like time to debate them.
Cassell said, "PSG needs more time to develop the
system to get it to work."
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