The balance of SGA power could be significantly changed if a series of reforms to be formally proposed by SGA President Jonathan Sachs tonight are adopted.

The changes, which will be formally introduced as a bill during today’s meeting, are designed to strengthen the legislature, Sachs said last week. Some legislators have reservations, including that it may prevent the most qualified students from holding key positions.

The bill would amend the Sudent Government Association bylaws to create five departments headed by executive cabinets members and staffed by interested non-elected students both inside and outside the SGA. The bill would also mandate all committees to be chaired by legislators. Students otherwise unattached to SGA could continue to join the committees, but would have to apply to an SGA committee for a voting position, unlike the system now, which allows both elected and nonelected students the same voting rights in SGA committees.

“[The bill is] giving legislators more responsibility,” SGA Greek Legislator Gabi Band said. “[It’s] putting more power in the legislature rather than the executive.”

Support for the bill in the legislature increased after SGA members reached a compromise on a particularly controversial part of the legislation – whether nonelected members of SGA committees should be given a vote at all – but some legislators remain unconvinced.

“Generally, I think it is a bill that means well, but may be a little too ambitious,” Engineering Legislator Kate Bodner wrote in an e-mail, adding that feelings among students are mixed. No legislator who she had talked to completely agreed or disagreed with all of the proposed changes in the bill.

As it is now, several committees that review legislation are chaired by members of the executive board. For example, SGA Senior Vice President Joanna Calabrese chairs the Campus Affairs Committee , which reviews a large portion of the SGA’s legislation. But interested undergraduate students can join committees and vote on bills without being elected by the student body.

Sachs and Calabrese could not be reached for comment on the bill last night.

Sachs presented a preliminary version of the changes in his state of the campus speech at last week’s SGA meeting that would have removed committee voting power entirely from non-legislators, although they would still be allowed to attend meetings.

Under the compromise, which was proposed by Band, undergraduate students would be able to vote if they showed up to at least three-fourths of the meetings and are approved by the Constitution and By-Laws Committee.

Many SGA members said the compromise is a positive for the organization.

“Regular students need to be held accountable,” SGA Education Legislator Jennifer Hill said. “You can’t just come to one meeting and vote, and then not come to the next three, then come to the next one and vote again.”

SGA Vice President of Academic Affairs Sterling Grimes , who chairs the Academic Affairs Committee , agreed, adding legislators, who ultimately vote on bills, should control the committees that consider them. Executives would still serve important roles on these committees by acting as experts to be consulted, he said.

But Bodner worried a legislator would not always make the best committee chair.

“Committee heads need to be the most knowledgeable about their topics; sometimes the person most knowledgeable about a topic is simply not a legislator. … If the legislator is the most knowledgeable, then by all means; they deserve the post of committee head anyway,” she wrote.

Band said the changes were good for the organization, because they would allow legislators, who are elected by the student body, to have a greater say in setting the course for the organization. It is important to have a strong legislature, he said, because legislators are elected to serve a specific constituency, while voluntary members may not be as conscious of representing a public interest. Giving those legislators more power ensures the constituency’s voice is heard more clearly, he said.

“Rather than having the executives push their agenda … you have legislators control that,” he said.

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