Updated: 1:04 p.m.

The Student Activities Commission passed an amendment to their constitution last night to formally empower the SAC chair to select his or her own successor.

The amendment, which reflects the selection system SAC has unofficially used for the last several years, passed with 12 votes in favor and one abstention late last night.

Previously, the constitution officially required that the chair be “appointed by the GUSA president and approved by the student association assembly.”

The change was made after months of collaboration between SAC and GUSA, and was designed to better reflect SAC’s current selection protocol, according to SAC Chair Sophia Behnia (COL ’09).

“The constitution hasn’t been representative of our procedures for five years,” she said. “We needed to approve a constitution that reflects how we operate.”

Bill McCoy, associate director for student programs and faculty adviser to SAC, said that the change would create a stronger institutional memory for future generations of SAC leadership.

“There was never great document-keeping that explained [SAC’s] evolution,” he said. “We don’t want to be in that situation again-we want to keep a true history of how things changed.”

att Wagner (COL ’11), a GUSA senator and finance appropriations chair said the senate approves of the new selection process.*

“The finance committee and the senate as a whole both agreed to it,” he said. “We understand for logistical reasons that they need to have a different way to transfer power right now.”

Greer and other senators said they expect the direct-selection system to be temporary. While plans have yet to be finalized, SAC and GUSA are working to create a joint committee, which may be responsible for choosing the SAC chair in the future.

“This [committee] would incorporate the general interests of the student body from GUSA, the institutional knowledge and student expertise of SAC, and the direct and specific will of student clubs and organizations [into the selection of a SAC chair],” Wagner said.

Behnia acknowledged that some members of the senate were initially unhappy with the change.

“[The approval process] didn’t go perfectly alright,” Behnia said. “We got pushback from some of the senators.”

Senator Nick Troiano (COL ’11) said he does not believe that SAC should have changed its constitution.

“Instead of changing the constitution, they should adapt their behavior to the way that the constitution says that they should work,” he said.

Senate Speaker Reggie Greer (COL ’09) said he views the change as a short-term solution and emphasized the importance of mutual cooperation.

“As long as we are still in a good-faith agreement . they’ll change it [the selection process] back again once SAC is able to work out a committee structure; I’m fine with it.”

*Correction: In the original version of this story, the quote by GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair Matt Wagner was taken out of context. The article suggested that Wagner said the entire senate supported the changes to the SAC constitution. Rather, Wagner said that the senate supports the creation of the proposed joint SAC-GUSA Commission.

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