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Today, the Student Senate will hear an amended version of the Student Government Association Constitution, to be voted on at the next Senate meeting. A major change would be the creation of a Registered Student Organization House of Representatives.

The House, composed of one representative from each of the RSO’s who sign up to participate, is an attempt by the new SGA administration to give more students a say on SGA policies.

Previous administrations have been known for their stalling, and communication with students is an easy talking point for most SGA candidates. It would seem the new administration is attempting to follow through on campaign promises.

While integrating the student community is an admirable task, whether or not the House of Representatives will be a success remains to be seen.

There are a few more hurdles that must be cleared if the amendments are approved.

First, are students going to want to participate? While there may be many benefits for the representatives and their RSO’s through networking, the House will be devoid of any actual power within the structure of SGA.

Its main legislative purpose is to make recommendations to the Student Senate, but the Senate remains the only body that can pass SGA legislation. SGA President Brian Hoffman said that it would take over 30 RSO’s signing up to make the House successful. Are there 30 people throughout the University that would like to spend time making recommendations that may not be heeded?

Too many people could possibly show up. Nearly 200 RSO’s with a representative for each one may be a little overbearing. It would seem to be difficult for meetings to operate effectively if there were more than a hundred people there. One student might have a difficult time expressing the interests of his or her organization in such a large setting, if due to nothing other than time limitations.

The plan provides for one representative from each of the RSO’s. It would make more sense to include more representatives from larger RSO’s, or would that just make it more difficult to enfranchise smaller RSO’s?

The Cardinal is encouraged by the administration’s attempt to include more students into the operation of SGA, and hope that the RSO House of Representatives is a success.

However, it remains to be seen how effectively it will actually be in drawing out minority opinions.