Brian Farkas News Editor

The Vassar Student Association (VSA) introduced a major amendment to its Constitution at its Feb. 11 meeting, altering Article IV to create a brand new sixth Executive Board position: the Vice President for Student Life.

According to the proposal, the Vice President for Student Life will be responsible for “improving the quality of student life and promoting general student welfare at Vassar College.” Additionally, he or she will serve as the primary liaison between the VSA and the Dean of the College Division, which includes a variety of offices including Campus Dining, the Dean of Studies, Residential Life, Security, and Student Employment. Finally, the position will provide support and guidance for Residence Councils.

“Concerns of student life normally fall to the President or Organization Executive, but we feel that the issues are important enough to justify the full-time attention of an Executive Board member,” said VSA President Abel McDonnell, ’07 in an e-mailed statement. “This will also allow the President to focus on coordinating and overseeing the Executive Board and VSA system.”

Class of 2009 President James Kelly was pleased with the amendment. “I think that this new position is vital to the new direction of the VSA. We are becoming a body focused more on student advocacy than ever before. This new position will help us accomplish that goal.”

Jewett House President Christopher Smith ’07 was equally optimistic. He said, “A big theme this year with Council has been to try to become a true conduit for student voices and opinions about the goings-on around campus. This position will help us to accomplish that.” Smith believes that debating issues pertaining to student life should be one of the primary focuses of the Council, and should have a member of the Executive Board to streamline those conversations.

McDonnell considers the proposed amendment a major alteration to the structure of student government. “This is the first time in 22 years that we’ll add a position to the Executive Board, so this is a pretty significant change,” he said. The position of the Academic Executive was introduced in 1985.

The proposal also reorganizes and renames the other Executive Board positions. The titles of the current Vice President, Organization Executive, Financial Executive, and Academic Executive will change to Vice President for Operations, Vice President for Activities, Vice President for Finance, and Vice President for Academics, respectively.

“The hope is to clarify responsibilities, creating titles which more accurately reflect specific responsibilities, and reflect the co-equal status of Exec Board members,” said McDonnell.

A separate proposed amendment to Article VIII of the Constitution would merge the VSA Judicial Board with the elected student delegation to the College Regulations Panel. This panel deals with major breaches of College policies, such as assault or possession of drugs. “The thinking here is that Judicial Board members tend to be rather under-utilized,” said McDonnell.

The Board convened only twice last year, and has not yet met this year. According to McDonnell, Dean of Students David Brown has expressed interest in having more students available to serve on the College Regulations panels. “The proposal will supply him with 17 [students]–four from each class plus the Judicial Board chair.” Chair of the Judicial Board Jacob Shiffrin ‘07, was optimistic about the consolidation of the two, similar agencies: “Sometimes people who run for the Judicial Board actually think they’re running for the College Regulations Panel and vice versa, because there’s no real reason to have two different groups. This will clear up confusion.”

The amendments proposed at this week’s VSA meeting will be voted on next Sunday, Feb. 18.