Changes to the Georgetown University Lecture Fund’s constitution that indirectly affect the speaker election process were proposed and adopted at GUSA’s Tuesday evening meeting by a vote of 8-3.

Additionally, a resolution proposed last week concerning Georgetown’s commitment to pluralism and an inclusive society was withdrawn from consideration.

The Lecture Fund constitution changes were proposed by Lecture Fund Chair Stephen Glaser (SFS ’04). Lecture Fund executives have previously been appointed by the GUSA president and ratified by the GUSA Assembly.

The changes intend to hand over this appointment to a new committee composed of the GUSA president, a member of the president’s Cabinet, the outgoing Lecture Fund Chair and a delegate from the Lecture Fund. The constitutional changes also include moving up the appointment date in order to facilitate this process.

Glaser said the changes allow for longevity of the organization’s leadership and give the Lecture Fund greater autonomy in deciding its leadership.

“We feel an organization with the impact on campus such as Lecture Fund should have more of a say in our leadership than the current process allows,” Glaser said.

GUSA President Brian Morgenstern (COL ’05) agreed that the Lecture Fund should have a role in choosing its leaders but disputed the changes on constitutional grounds.

“The current changes threaten to insert politics into an organization that is meant to be unpolitical,” he said. “The leadership is appointed to avoid having a divisive election process within the fund and so the popularly-elected GUSA president can appoint a well-rounded and representative leadership.”

Morgenstern said he believed the resolution needed to be reworked to eliminate the possibility of an appointment made without the consent of the GUSA president.

Glazer disagreed, contending that by divesting authority from the GUSA president, the resolution would keep the Lecture Fund apolitical.

“If [the amendments are] deemed unconstitutional, there may be something wrong with the GUSA constitution,” he said.

Morgenstern said that a campus-wide referendum would be necessary to implement a constitutional amendment.

“For these changes to be made, unfortunately, the Assembly cannot simply ratify them,” he said.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Representative Luis Torres (COL ’05) withdrew a resolution he proposed last week that would have declared “inclusive society and pluralism” as goals of the university. The resolution was offered as an alternative to junior class representative Matt Mauney’s (COL ’05) resolution thanking Cardinal Francis Arinze for a controversial speech made at the College Commencement in May, which was defeated last Tuesday.

At last week’s meeting, Torres provided a list of campus groups that opposed Mauney’s resolution. Among the groups on the list was The Knights of Columbus. Torres, however, asked that any reference to that group be expunged from the meeting record because he had failed to distinguish between the personal opposition of only some of the group members and the opposition of the entire organization.

“The Knights of Columbus neither supported nor opposed the auney Resolution,” Torres said.

Other projects, including an attempt to gain course credit for ROTC classes, a movement to permit intra-college minors, a desire to establish student music downloading discounts with internet file-sharing company Napster, and improvements to dining services were also discussed.