Dear ASSU Executives, Graduate Student Councilmembers, and Undergraduate Senators: We write to you regarding the proposed ASSU

Constitutional revision as Stanford alumni who served as members of various ASSU entities. Last week, 2010-2011 ASSU Vice President Kelsei Wharton, 2009-2010 ASSU Executives David Gobaud and Andy Parker, and 2008-2009 ASSU Executives Jonny Dorsey and Fagan Harris urged you to delay sending these constitutional revisions to the student body until after a public review period of at least one quarter. We write to echo their concerns and to further elaborate on these constitutional revisions. The 2007 constitutional amendments took three academic years to craft, and the 1990s constitutional amendments were phased in over four academic years. These proposed revisions have been public for just three weeks, and they produce numerous sweeping changes in the way the ASSU is structured and in the ASSUs relationship with the University. Many of the signers below have been involved in the drafting/passage/failure of previous constitutional amendments and governing document revisions. We understand the amount of time and effort that it takes to revise the governing documents, and we praise the governing documents commissions efforts in this regard. However, previous efforts have involved people from all branches of the ASSU, various student organizations, alumni, and members of the student body, over long periods of time. Three weeks (including Dead Week) is not a long enough public review period before placing constitutional revisions on the ballot. Many of these revisions are intentional and some have produced unintended consequences. Either way, they need more than three weeks consideration before being placed on the ballot. In just a few short days, the following changes have been made to the constitutional revisions: The rights of the accused section had been gutted in the original revision and had to be restored. The revised Constitution inadvertently required Special Fee groups to petition twice to appear on the ballot if the Senate or GSC rejected their statement of purpose, and this provision had to be struck.

Among numerous others, these are the following fundamental revisions to the ASSU Constitution: The proposed revisions remove the strict requirements allowing representation of the student body on matters outside the university. These requirements were created by a student initiative petition in the early 1990s. The subsection stating, In the event of a conflict between this ASSU Constitution and applicable law or appropriate University policy, the law or appropriate University policy shall take precedence, would completely abrogate the independence of the ASSU. The ASSU Constitution is a contract between the students and the administration of the University. Allowing University policy to take precedence over the ASSU Constitution would permit the University to unilaterally change the nature of its relationship with the ASSU and to unilaterally overturn ASSU rules without regard to what the Constitution may say.

The freedom of information provisions reduce the pool of eligible people from the general public to simply those with SUNet IDs. This places the University in control of who has access, for it is the University who assigns SUNet IDs. It also is problematic in that the SUNet ID is a relatively recent University device, and should the University adopt a new identification system, no one would be eligible to access ASSU records under the freedom of information provisions. Consolidating the Bylaws into one document virtually eliminates the purpose of a bicameral legislature. Even the California Assembly and Senate and the United States House of Representatives and Senate each have their own separate rules to maintain their bicameral structure. The ASSU President is given unprecedented power over the ASSU legislative branch by placing him/her as presiding officer of each legislative body and giving the President the power to sign legislation. The ASSU President has never presided over the GSC or the Senate nor has the President been able to sign legislation in the present constitution. The revisions abolish the independent Nominations Commission and instead create a legislative committee to make nominations to represent the student body on University committees. The revisions create an unprecedented Joint Administration Committee exercising to determine potential issues on legislation. An appointed Chair of University Relations and Community Advocacy Board are placed in the Constitution when such entities could be placed in the Bylaws or be part of the Executive Cabinet. The executive Chief of Staff and the Class Presidents are placed in the Constitution when these positions have traditionally resided outside the Constitution. The revisions require the Constitutional Council to adjudicate cases of alleged violations of the Bylaws when their current jurisdiction is solely to adjudicate cases of alleged violations of the Constitution. The revisions allow employees of the ASSU will be permitted to serve on the Constitutional Council while the current Constitution prohibits such a situation. The appointed ASSU Parliamentarian is placed in the Constitution and is named as chair of the legislative Joint Administration and Rules Committee, thereby putting an appointed official as the head of a committee that otherwise consists of elected representatives of the Graduate and Undergraduate student bodies. The revisions place the date of the ASSU elections in the Constitution when this has traditionally resided in the Bylaws. The Elections Commissioner shall be appointed by the Steering Committee without confirmation from the legislative bodies, yet the Assistant Elections Commissioners will be subject to confirmation by the legislative bodies. The revisions place a Governing Documents Commission in the Constitution, mandating it to propose amendments to the constitution every three years. Stanford Student Enterprises is placed in the Constitution when it has long operated as an entity outside of and independent from the ASSU Constitution. The Associate Financial Manager is placed in the Constitution when this position has traditionally resided in the Bylaws. The term of the Financial Manager is changed from one year to two years.

The revisions change the ASSU presidential line of succession to consist of the elected Vice President and the appointed Chair of Community Advocacy, and should the line be exhausted, then the Steering Committee shall appoint any student it wishes as the new President. The current Constitution has the President succeeded by the Vice President, and should both be vacant, then the legislative bodies shall name one of the ASSUs elected officials as the new President. The revisions place the definitions of VSOs, surcharge regulations, and the buffer fund in the Constitution when those have traditionally resided in the Bylaws. The power of the legislative bodies to divide a Special Fee has been eliminated. The Constitutional Council is compelled to enforce sanctions for violations of elections policies of the Elections Commission. Under the present Constitution, the Council is solely responsible for interpreting the constitutionality of an action. By specifically specifying the number of degree-granting schools in the Constitution, every time the University starts a new school, the Constitution will need to be amended or else the new school will go unrepresented in the Graduate Student Council. The current Constitution leaves it to the GSC Bylaws to determine the manner in which GSC seats are allocated amongst the schools. Strangely, a very lengthy definition of a tie for purposes of elections is placed in the Constitution, yet the tie-breaking procedure is placed in the Bylaws. Traditionally, both resided in the Bylaws. The student body gains the power to recall members of the Constitutional Council, employees of SSE, the Elections Commissioner, and various appointed officials. The current Constitution only subjects the President, Vice President, Undergraduate Senators, and GSC Members to recall. Bizarrely, this mathematically contradictory clause sits in the revisions: For a recall measure, a majority vote shall be by approval of two-thirds of voters. The revisions change the constitutional amendment vote threshold to simply 2/3 of all students (provided that number is equivalent to 15% of all students). The current constitution requires 2/3 of undergraduates (provided that number is equivalent to 15% of all undergraduates) and 2/3 of graduates (provided that number is equivalent to 15% of all graduates). The revisions make it so that a strong supermajority vote of undergraduates could overpower a majority of graduate students to amend the Constitution.

These sweeping and fundamental changes to the Constitution require much thought and input, and three weeks (including Dead Week) is simply not enough time. We urge you to not place these constitutional revisions on the Spring Quarter 2012 ballot. Many of the changes are intentional but should have more time for discussion. There are also many unintended consequences that could result from the proposed revisions, and more time is needed to review the revisions to catch these unintended consequences. For the sake of the ASSU and the student body of Stanford, we urge you to delay these revisions to another quarters ballot.

Sincerely, Varun Sivaram BA/BS '11 2009-10 Undergraduate Senate Chair Jessica Tsai BS '08, MD/PhD '15 2010-11 GSC Co-Chair 2009-10 GSC School of Medicine Rep and Programming Co-Chair Eric Osborne JD '10 2009-10 GSC Co-Chair Nanna Notthoff PhD (current) 2009-10 GSC Co-Chair 2008-09 GSC Financial Officer Robert Hennessy MS '10, PhD '12 2009-10 GSC Parliamentarian

Shelley Gao BA/BS '11 2008-09 Undergraduate Senate Chair Priyanka Sharma BA '09 2007-08 Undergraduate Senate Chair

Chris Nguyen BA '07 2005-06 Undergraduate Senate Chair 2004-05 Senate Administration & Rules Chair Chris Lin BS '05 2004-05 Undergraduate Senate Chair 2003-04 Undergraduate Senator Matt McLaughlin BA '08 2008-10 SSE CEO/ASSU Financial Manager David Gobaud BS '10 2009-10 ASSU President Jonny Dorsey BA '09, MBA '14 2008-09 ASSU President Elizabeth Heng BA '07 2006-07 ASSU President Fagan Harris BA '09 2008-09 ASSU Vice President Kamil Saeid BS '13 2010-11 Senate Advocacy Committee Co-Chair Adam Creasman BS '11 2009-10 Undergraduate Senator

Adam L. Beberg MS '10, PhD (on leave) 2007-09 GSC Parliamentarian 2005-07 GSC Funding Committee Chair Jenny Allen JD '07 2005-07 GSC Co-Chair Lindsay Heyen JD '09 2007-08 Constitutional Council Chair Bob Sensenbrenner BA '06, JD '10 2005-06 Constitutional Council Member Tim Sanders JD '07 2005-06 Elections Commissioner Ana Diaz-Hernandez BA '11 2008-09 Undergraduate Senator Daniel Limon BA '13 2009-10 Undergraduate Senator Carolyn Simmons BA '13 2010-11 Undergraduate Senator 2009-10 Executive Fellow Dean Young BS '11 2009-10 Undergraduate Senator

Brian Wanyoike BA '12 2009-10 Senate Advocacy Committee Chair

Stephanie Chan BA '11 2008-09 Senate Appropriations Chair

Prachi Priyam BA '11 2008-09 Senate Treasurer and Administration & Rules Deputy Chair 2007-08 Senate Associate Alex Katz BA '12 2009-10 Senate Parliamentarian and Administration & Rules Chair Zachary Warma BA '11 2009-10 Senate Student Life Housing and Education Chair Stuart Baimel BA '09 2008-09 Senate Student Life, Housing and Education Chair 2007-08 Undergraduate Senator

Anton Zietsman BA '12 2009-10 Senate Appropriations Committee Chair

Danny Arbeiter BS '08, MBA '12 2006-07 Undergraduate Senator 2005-06 Undergraduate Senate Deputy Chair Luukas Ilves BA '09 2008-09 Senate Administration & Rules Chair 2007-08 Undergraduate Senator