Point Loma Nazarene Univeristy’s Associated Student Body Board of Directors and Student Senate have unanimously passed an amendment to the ASB constitution, putting it on the ballot for students to vote on in the upcoming ASB election.
On the heels of the student body recently voting to pass an amendment changing the position of director of school spirit to an elected position rather than appointed, this proposed amendment carries that shift further.
The new amendment to the ASB constitution seeks to ensure that a majority of positions on the ASB BoD must be student-elected.
“Similarly to the importance of the elected nature of the director of school spirit, the committee believes that the entirety of the student body will stand to benefit from choosing and getting to know their representatives,” Senate said in a joint statement. “It is the goal of the Senate to build community and relationship between the board of directors and the student body as a whole.”
The amendment originated out of the ASB BoD noticing the lack of any guardrails around what positions are appointed or elected, Emery Mundis, ASB director of activities, said.
“Part of our job is to keep reviewing the documents and everything that we have and that have been passed down for several years,” Mundis said. “And it was within that, the eight of us had noticed that we didn’t have this clarification and saw the value of it being introduced into the student body and into the Constitution.”
Echoing this sentiment Kenzie Lopez, ASB vice president, said that this measure looks to set the standard for the years ahead.
“While this notion of voting power is already in action and has been for a number of years, we, Student Senate and BoD, believe placing it in writing in the ASB Constitution will protect students’ ability to vote in the future,” Lopez said.
According to ASB President Colby Douglas, the proposed amendment’s core purpose is to keep ASB in the hands of students.
“If [a director] gets appointed … maybe staff, or whoever is appointing them, they might have more of an obligation to serve those people, rather than students,” Douglas said. “And so we want to keep the power with the student body and make sure that student government is always for students and by students.”
Following the next ASB election, the BoD will contain two appointed positions: director of finance and director of activities. Douglas said these positions require certain skills that need to be vetted before someone can step into the role.
“We’re not saying that appointed positions would not be the same thing,” he said. “But we want to make sure that as student government continues in the future, that a future board – if they were to want to add appointed positions – have to at least look at this statement that we’re putting in here.”
Esteban Trujillo, university chaplain and the interim faculty advisor for ASB, said that the amendment is not seeking to change anything, but rather document their hope for guiding practices.
“It offers language in our guiding documents [of] what is already true and in practice, in our ASB election process,” Trujillo said. “Only two of our ASB positions are selected by interview, and it continues to ensure the voice of the student body in this process.”
While Douglas said that the board’s adoption of the amendment is proactive in protecting against appointed leadership that ignores student interests, he also said that it has not been an issue in the past.
“We’re basically just looking to the future and saying: ‘What could threaten the system that we have now down the line? What are some things that we’ve learned in our year of experience here?’” Douglas said.
The proposed amendment in its entirety is linked here.
Kate Williams 
Charis Johnston