Student Senator Greg Doucette wrote a bill proposing changes to the student body constitution that met some resistance within Student Senate at its introduction.

During the Feb. 28 senate meeting, some senators raised their voices and vacated their chairs in response to the bill that proposed modifications to make Student Government more accountable for its actions.

According to Doucette, a junior in computer science, the bill caused some concern because he submitted the entire constitution in the bill instead of just the individual parts that he altered.

Doucette said some senators assumed that he had rewritten the entire constitution when in fact, he only changed a few parts.

“Part of the problem is the way that I presented it,” Doucette said.

According to Doucette, he decided to propose the bill as the entire constitution to make it easier to read instead of expecting senators to go through individual sections he had modified.

“Some folks thought I had rewritten the whole constitution but I hadn’t,” he said.

Adam Compton, student body treasurer, was one of the members of SG who opposed the bill. He said the bill caused so much controversy because large-scale changes to the constitution need to be completed over a long period of time with significant student input.

Compton, a junior in construction engineering and management, said the bill felt like it had been “kind of sprung on” to the senators.

“I wouldn’t have said a word if in January this bill had been filed or earlier than that, when it could’ve had time to [have] really been reviewed,” Compton said.

The bill was not even supposed to be included in the meeting, according to Compton. He said the meeting was an emergency one for appropriations, not one for the first reading of bills.

Doucette said he was forced to wait until the meeting directly before spring break to introduce the bill due to several tests he had and other bills he needed to focus on instead of the constitution proposal.

“I just hadn’t gotten the chance to get it typed up,” Doucette said.

Doucette said he decided to take charge of this constitution revision since the task force that SG created last summer never completed its goals of doing this.

During the pre-spring break student senate meeting multiple senators stood and voiced their concern during the discussion of Doucette’s proposed changes to the constitution.

Scott Lassiter, a freshman in political science and senator for At-Large First-Years, said the senate responded so adamantly because Compton and Doucette are two of the main leaders in SG and stood on opposite sides of the issue.

“It’s going to cause some flare-ups,” he said.

Lassiter said the reason some senators voted against the bill was out of pure exhaustion. He said they were fearful that approval means rushing the bill through without the correct amount of discussion.

“A lot of folks are just burnt out and scared of bringing something like that up,” he said.

Doucette said the the senate sent the bill to the Gov Ops committee, which will consider the bill and it will then go through a second reading in senate.

If the senate approves the bill, Doucette said, it will place it on the ballot. He said if it does not pass, he plans to bring it up again next year.