Know your Bylaws from your Constitution

Unless you spend a lot of time with the Vassar Student Association (VSA), the inner workings of the Council can sometimes seem a little inaccessible. However, while there are 24 members of the Council, all Vassar students are members of the VSA and all VSA Council meetings are open to all students. One of the best ways to understand the Council is to watch it in action, or, even better run for a position. But before you arrive, here is an introduction to some of the VSA's structure and what it does.

The Council is charged with overseeing student organizations, budgeting the Student Activities Fee, making recommendations to the College on the behalf of students and taking part in VSA and joint committees that put forward policy ideas both for students and the College.

The Council

The Executive Board: Members of the VSA Executive Board chair the VSA's committees and have regular interactions with College administrators. In addition to chairing their appointed committees they also sit on a variety of important joint committees at the College. The Executive Board includes the President, the Vice President for Student Life, the Vice President for Operations, the Vice President for Academics, the Vice President for Activities, and the Vice President for Finance. See the introduction to the VSA's Executive Board for more about next year's Executive Board.

House Presidents: Each residential house along with the South Common, the Terrace Apartments, Town Houses, and Town Students (students who elect to live off campus) are represented by one Council Member. In addition to sitting on VSA Council, house presidents are responsible for leading their respective house teams and for attending the weekly meeting of the Board of House Presidents to discuss issues of residential life at the College.

Class Presidents: Each class elects a president to represent it on Council. In addition to serving as a member of Council, class presidents chair their respective class councils.

Roberts Rules: VSA Council adheres strictly to this parliamentary style of discussion and debate, which includes keeping a speaker's list to keep order in the conversation. While all members of the student body are welcome to attend any VSA Council meeting, in order to speak each student must also get on the speaker's list and wait his or her turn before raising a point.

Budgeting: The VSA controls the money from the student activities fee, which amounts to about $700,000, which is then broken down between a variety of VSA funds that are set aside for special purposes, such as bringing lecturers to campus, and the VSA's Operating Budget which is used to allocate money to all student organizations, who apply every spring for the next year's funding. After each organization applies, the Finance and Activities Committees review the requests and make recommendations for the following year's budget. This budget is then reviewed and approved by the Executive Board before going to the VSA Council for a vote. Because the VSA is most always overrequested, the annual budgeting meeting is often contentious as organization leaders may come to question and contest their organization's allocation. The Council then has the opportunity to revise the budget before eventually passing it.

Elections: Elections take place in late April, though there are elections for the freshman class every fall. Elections are always run by the Board of Elections, which is made up of students who volunteer for the job and are not running for any positions themselves. Before running for a position, every candidate must file, or sign up, by writing a candidate statement. After the filing period, there are a few days in which campaigning is allowed. The VSA has many guidelines for campaigning including what online campaigning is allowed and how many posters a candidate may post. During this time, candidates often go door-to-door to meet voters. After the campaigning period ends, candidates must take down on campaign materials. Voting is then done online and the online poll is open for a few days before votes are tallied.

Referendum: Occasionally the Council will wish to pose a question to the student body to gauge opinion on a campus issue. The process is similar to an election in that the referendum will take place as an online poll, and referendums may even be included on the election ballot. The most recent referendum was about correlate sequences whether students believed that they should be called minors as similar programs are named at other colleges.

Resolution: A resolution is the VSA's most significant and most usual means of proposing a new policy or legislation to the College or supporting a cause on behalf of the student body. However, the VSA Council may endorse any document that they feel the student body supports. Resolutions first include a list of reasons for the resolution, the issues that the document seeks to address, and then provides a numbered list of possible solutions. The Council might also pass memorandums to state its position on a specific issue. Any student may bring a resolution or other document to the Council for resolution. As a result of a letter brought forward by student in the Campus Solidarity Working Group, the VSA passed guidelines that will make the process of endorsing documents from outside of the Council more clear in the future.

Governing Documents

The VSA has three governing documents—the VSA Constitution, the VSA Bylaws, and the VSA Policies.

The Constitution establishes the structure and functions of the VSA. Amendments to the Constitution may be presented by any member of the VSA—any student—though the Council waits one week in between the introduction of the amendment and the vote. This period is meant for Council members to reach out to their constituents, inform them of the coming change and hear their opinions. The amendment is then only officially adopted two weeks after it is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Council. The two week period is available for students to register objections to the amendment and request a referendum.

While the Constitution outlines the function and structure of the VSA, the Bylaws provide guidance into how the VSA may operate, including detailed instructions for the VSA's budgeting process, for elections, the oversight of student organizations, the running of Council meetings and the role of students on both VSA and joint committees. Amendments to the bylaws are somewhat more frequent than amendments to the Constitution, though there is still a one week period between the amendment's introduction and a vote.

The VSA Policies are used less often in Council, and they stipulate VSA best practices regarding the advertising of events, reimbursing funds and some elections. Parts of the document are, frankly, out of date, such as the inclusion of polling stations during elections as voting has moved entirely online. The Policies are not listed in either the Bylaws or the Constitution and there is no set process for amending them, so they are not as formally adhered to as the previous documents, nor invoked as frequently.

Committees:

The VSA Council has five committees of its own, each chaired by one of the vice presidents. These include the Academics Committee, the Activities Committee, the Finance Committee, the Student Life Committee, and the Operations Committee. The Activities and Finance Committees are both responsible for student organizations with the Finance Committee reviewing applications for funds and the Activities Committee reviewing activities planned by organizations as well as the organizations themselves and applications for certification. The Academics and Student Life Committees both discuss issues pertinent to their areas of the College and create legislation that will later be brought to Council. The Operations Committee oversees the functions of the VSA itself by reviewing the Bylaws and Constitution, keeping a record of capital items owned by the VSA and making appointments to vacant student positions on committees or in the VSA's governing structure (on a house team, for example).

Students also sit on a number of joint committees at the College, which include representation from students, faculty and the administration. Two of the most prominent joint committees are the Committee on College Life and the Committee on Curricular Policies. Though members of the VSA Council often sit on joint committees, non-council members are also elected as members of the student delegations to most joint committees.

There are several student committees that are not necessarily populated by members of the VSA Council. These committees are generally charged with very specific annual tasks, such as the oversight of an event like Founder's Day or Serenading, or they make review and make recommendations on areas of the College that are of particular interest to students, as the Food Committee does.

Student Organizations:

The vast majority of student groups on campus are VSA-certified organizations. Certification gives organizations the right to apply to the VSA for funds from the student activities fee, to officially register events and to table in the College Center among other rights. A new organization that wishes to be certified applies to the VSA through the Activities Committee and works closely with the Vice President for Academics to show that the org is active and has the potential to remain active and strong even after the initial members have graduated. The VSA Council then votes to officially certify the organization or not.

When organizations are remain inactive for a long time or fails to turn in required organization reviews, the Council can also vote to temporarily freeze the organization's certified status or to decertify it altogether.