Student Senate members were introduced to more than a dozen proposed revisions to the Student Government Constitution last Wednesday.

The proposed revisions, worked out by the senate’s constitutional review committee, would make key changes to almost every part of the constitution, from allowing part-time students to run for senate to asserting students’ rights.

The constitutional review committee, which consists of Senate Speaker Adam Weyhaupt, Student Body President Katie Cox, senate members, executive officers and students, was created by the senate last semester to suggest revisions to the constitution.

The proposed revisions, if approved by the senate today, would be voted on by the student body during Student Government elections April 17 to 18. The revisions approved by the students would then become part of the constitution.

While many of the proposed changes simply reword existing parts of the constitution, the committee has recommended several important changes for the Student Senate, the executive branch, the judicial branch and the Student Bill of Rights.

Under the proposed revisions, part-time students would be allowed to run for senate.

“They should have the opportunity to run (for senate),” Weyhaupt said. “They need representation too.”

Executive officers, as well as the speaker of the senate, though, would have to be full-time students under the proposal, he said.

Many of the revisions targeted the executive branch of Student Government.

The committee recommended that student executives, which include the student body president and four student vice presidents, be required to attend Student Senate meetings.

Weyhaupt said executives should be at the meetings to share their experiences with senate members and to allow the student body to talk to them in a public forum.

Senate members later sent the proposal back to committee, saying the wording of the proposal was too harsh.

The grade point requirement for executive officer candidates also would be raised from a 2.0 to a 2.25, the level required of senate members and student deans.

The title of vice president for public affairs would be changed to executive vice president.

Weyhaupt said the committee believed since the officer involved internal duties, such as helping run the executive branch, the current title did not fit the job description.

“It’s a very strict name change,” he said.

The student body president also would be permitted to write executive orders. Executive orders, which Weyhaupt said are recommendations similar to senate resolutions, give the opinion of the student body president.

Cox said that although nothing is currently stated about executive orders in the constitution, every student body president in the past decade has issued at least one.

Also, the committee has recommended that the Student Supreme Court be the court for final jurisdiction in cases involving the Student Body Constitution, the Student Bill of Rights and Recognized Student Organizations.

In the Students’ Bill of Rights, a section would be added detailing students’ rights when dealing with university housing. The proposed section asserts that students have the right to privacy and autonomy, the right to be present when a university official enters their living space and the right to be “intimately involved” in housing decisions that affect them.

The proposed section also was sent back to committee after senate members voiced concerns over the enforcement of the section, and whether it would apply in situations such as Montanans workers coming in to fix a broken window.

Proposals sent back to committee will be revised and resubmitted to the senate tonight’s meeting, when they will likely be voted on, he said.