RHA passes organizational changes
The plan would abolish the separate sustainability committee.
Published April 20, 2010
Major structural changes are coming to the Residence Halls Association.
By a unanimous vote, RHA passed legislation that will extensively restructure the existing system. RHA Speaker of Congress Michael Crawford said the new system models the system in place at the Missouri House of Representatives and will increase RHA's efficiency.
One change in the proposed restructuring plan would add the sustainability committee, which exists now as an independent entity, into the events and planning committee.
During discussion, freshman Taylor Dukes said she wanted to see a sustainability committee on its own in the resolution and called for a verbal amendment to the resolution.
Parliamentarian Jared Grafman, a member of The Maneater staff, directed Congress to vote on the resolution as it was proposed, which would include the sustainability committee within the events and planning committee and said members could work to amend the document at a later date.
President Rachael Feuerborn said a standalone sustainability committee was originally included in the resolution but the resolution's authors later decided to consolidate the position with the events and planning committee.
"We're going to be writing an amendment for it," RHA Sustainability Chairwoman Chasidy Kretzer said. "I'm hoping it will get its own committee, if not, I hope it won't get overlooked."
Feuerborn appointed Kretzer as sustainability chairwoman in fall 2009.
"She's doing exactly what I wanted her to do," Feuerborn said. "A lot of organizations around campus, like Sustain Mizzou, now know our name and know they can come to us for help."
Freshman Adriana Saladrigas said sustainability should function as its own committee.
"I feel as though it's a very big part of Mizzou, and we're very highly ranked in sustainability," Saladrigas said. "It's a lot for one person to take on, so a committee would be very helpful."
The legislation would also reinvent the parliamentarian position, changing its name to speaker pro-tempore, and increase the position's responsibilities.
The existing parliamentarian position has not received a stipend in the past and will now receive $200. Crawford said with the new title, the speaker pro-tempore would also receive more duties.
If the sustainability committee were created, no major budget changes would be necessary to ensure the new committee chairperson would receive a $100 stipend, which is standard amount for all committee chairs.
"We'd take $100 from the speaker pro tempore's stipend," Feuerborn said.
The existing legislation designates a $200 stipend for the speaker pro tempore and $100 for all committee chairpersons. If the committee is created, both committee chairs and speaker pro tempore would receive a $100 stipend.
Crawford said considering all the speaker pro tempore would do, cutting the stipend to $100 would be undesirable.
"They will be doing almost as much as I will be doing, if I'm speaker again," said Crawford, who earns $700 per year as speaker of Congress. "So, they do deserve probably more than $100."
Crawford said he would work to keep the speaker pro tempore's stipend at $200, but also stressed the democratic process.
"I would ask the representatives whether we should take another $100 to add to the stipends," Crawford said. "It would be completely up to the representatives."
Former Speaker of Congress Blake Lawrence commented on the legislation as Crawford presented it and said he liked how the new system would streamline the legislative process.
"This is going to be a very, very tough thing if we don't have good people," Lawrence said. "It works in MSA, because they have very good people who work well. But we don't have six committee chairs at this point. We have two or three of them."
