RHA president drafts four bills similar to ones he vetoed

One bill regarded the responsibilities of the organization's president.

By Krissy Tripp

Published Feb. 10, 2009

Before the end of fall semester, the Residence Halls Association Congress passed a bill RHA President Robert Wood vetoed after the last meeting of the semester. The bill proposed six changes to the constitution regarding four responsibility changes.

At the opening of the spring semester, Wood wrote four bills, all addressing issues similar to the one he vetoed in December.

Both bills create and outline specific duties for the president and vice president of RHA. The purpose of the bills is to "further the accountability of the presidential and vice presidential positions of RHA through added responsibilities outlined in the constitution."

Representatives at the Jan. 26 meeting began a heated discussion about the main difference between the bills. The original bill would have taken effect immediately, but Wood's bills would take effect at the end of his term.

After discussion among the authors, some of the 2009 bills were revised. One regarding the number of meetings the president is required to attend was amended to take place immediately.

Last week the discussion was tabled because Vice President Nate Ballance explained to RHA the version of the constitution they are using is possibly outdated and certain parts weren't updated fully after last year's amendments.

"Administration from prior years had an updated copy of the constitution that failed to make it to administrations of subsequent years," Wood said. "It was written and revised, but the current executives never got copies."

Ballance contacted the past two presidents to get the legislation that didn't make it to an updated constitution. He and Speaker of Congress Blake Lawrence will compile the information to create a fully updated constitution.

Secretary Patrick Anderson wrote the original bill because he said he realized several duties in the constitution were out of date and wanted an up-to-date set of duties outlined.

"I was completely shocked and displeased when the bills were presented without any forms of notification," Anderson said.

He said he was bothered he wasn't consulted about the bills because the changes were very similar to his bills but didn't acknowledge his original authorship. He said Wood plagiarized his work.

"I was personally offended," Wood said about Anderson's accusation of plagiarism.

Wood said he vetoed the bill because it was passed in Congress without much discussion. He disagreed with eliminating leadership opportunities. Wood said he agreed with some of Anderson's key points but felt the points needed to be expanded upon.

"There was an uneven shift of powers created between the president and vice president," Wood said. "It put more restrictions on the president but gave more freedoms to the vice president."

Wood said he made the changes take effect next year so that there would be no problems in the event Ballance wasn't immediately comfortable with the changes taking place. Once it was decided that both president and vice president were comfortable with immediate changes, a friendly amendment was allowed to make the bills effective immediately.