In an open GUSA assembly meeting tonight, members of the Yard Steering Committee will present a proposal to push back the referendum on the Yard constitution to fall.

Co-chair of the proposed Yard Student Association Sabine Calle (COL ’01) said that the Constitutional Review Committee’s lack of consensus and the subsequent posting of the Yard constitution online prompted this proposal.

According to Calle, Yard representatives and select GUSA officials have been unofficially discussing the possibility of postponing the referendum since March 15, when the final Yard constitution accepted by GUSA was posted online. The vote was originally planned for March 29.

“We have been talking about [pushing the referendum to a later date] for the past week,” Calle said. If GUSA does not accept their initial proposal according to, Yard members would attempt to postpone the referendum scheduled for March 29, until the GUSA executive elections in February 2002.

On March 15, members of the Constitutional Review Committee announced that they were unable to reach a consensus on the constitution for a new student government by the deadline proposed by GUSA President Tawan Davis (COL ’01). The purpose of the review committee, which held nine working meetings over the course of a month, was to review and revise the present student government and create a new constitution that would incorporate aspects of both the proposed Yard and GUSA.

Since the two side could not reach a comprimise, the student body is expected to vote on a version of the Yard constitution that had to be posted online by March 15, in a special referendum later this month.

Some Yard representatives have said that because of the review committee’s lack of consensus, few members could be consulted before the proposed Yard constitution was posted. Accordingly, the posting of the final constitution was not a collaborative effort on the part of the entire Yard committee, they said. For this reason, Yard representatives including Calle, co-chair Nate Willems (SFS ’01) and Matt Brennan (SFS ’03) decided to find ways to formulate a constitution that would be more widely supported by Yard representatives.

Brennan, who acted as a Yard representative on the review committee, has stepped down from his position as Yard spokesperson. While heavy schoolwork initiated his decision to resign, Brennan said his final choice stemmed from his disapproval of the Yard constitution posted online.

Rob Bauer (COL ’02), a co-chair of the Constitutional Review Committee, agreed with the committee’s decision to secure a document that would be supported by all Yard members.

According to Bauer, another option that the Yard Steering Committee has is to pull the constitution completely from the referendum, an action that could only be executed by the committee.

Since 1995 several students have voiced their opposition against GUSA. It was only this year, however, that Yard proponents were able to gather enough student signatures to propose the constitution to GUSA.