Our society needs a new constitution
I wish I were saying this for our traditional society and not just our department on campus, because I believe our societies could really use a “new* constitution”. A constitution entirely different from that of our grandparents and our parents’. A constitution written by us ourselves, by we millennials and gen Zs, of course with the guidance and counsel of our fathers. I personally believe to some extent, that our old people make some of us live in their ancient world while we need to live in ours, the current world. A classic example is how getting/having a job works these days. It’s a totally different story from how it used to work with our fathers’ generations.
Many of our elders in this part of the world find it very hard to believe (most just dismisses the whole idea) that you can work a job just from your computer. Most of them would say they feel fooled to believe such ridicule. There are so many other instances of our lives as millennials and gen Zs that our elders cannot begin to fathom and they dismiss them as cheats.
Oh we got lost there. (“Yeltoga manla sonsi, di yi’sirla taba”, as said in my local dialect; conversations are like rabbits, they wake each other. Basically, different conversations lead to entirely different conversations.)
Let’s stay focused.
There is the need to draft a new constitution for our department(known as an association as The Computer Science Society(CSS)). As the chairperson of the judiciary board of the society, it is my duty to make it happen; to constitute an ad-hoc committee and spearhead/oversee the process to draft the new constitution.
Why?
Good question!
Our school just gain autonomy only 3 academic years ago. What this means is that; the school used to be a branch of a bigger school(one of four campuses of one university) and now our school is on its own. It’s no more a branch of another school.
Because of this, all official documents are being reviewed in the name of the new university since all documents still bear the name of the old university which is still in existence somewhere. Constitutions and all other official or legal documents are being reviewed to reflect the objectives of the new university and expunge the old one.
Legal documents of all including, faculties/schools, clubs and associations, unions and organizations within the school needs to be reviewed.
This constitution draft that we are now undertaking was supposed to be done in the last two administrations of the computer science society but they simply did not or could not do it due to reasons I have no idea about. It is my time now and I have to make sure what needs to be done is done and done right.
Composition of the constitution committee
The constitution draft committee is made up of 7 members.
- A representative from SRC parliamentary council.
- A representative from SRC judiciary board.
- A representative from CSS executive council.
- 4 members from the CSS judiciary board.
For the preparation of a document as delicate as the constitution it’s imperative to invite representation from higher bodies like SRC(student representative council) parliamentary council, the SRC judiciary council, the society’s own executive council. Because the constitution is our code of conduct, it is what is going to be guiding us through every step and in doing everything. From how our elections are organized, how appointments are made after elections, how budgets are scrutinized, to our general assembly (the highest decision making body), how decisions are taken and finalized. And so on.
There’s the need for maximum representation on the constitution committee in order that ideas from different perspectives and different aspects of our lives as students for that matter, will be shared and covered in the constitution.
Our first meeting as a committee
Our first meeting as a constitution committee
Our first meeting as a constitution committee
my secretary calling for our first meeting
We had our first meeting as a committee last Monday 20th February to discuss how we are going to undertake the drafting process. 5 out of the 7 members were able to make to it. One of them had asked permission to attend another meeting. But we did not hear anything from the other member. I am not even pissed because at the end of the day we would check the attendance and give them allowance.
We need to get it done as soon as possible because the society can barely function without the constitution.
Conclusions from the meeting
Conclusions from the meeting
For that matter, we decided that we would use 6 meetings to finish the whole process. These 6 meetings would be spread across 2 weeks, thus 3 meetings a week. And each week we would be meeting on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, from 8:00PM each day.
With this schedule, we shall be done with the whole process by 5th March.
My message to my secretary (Nihaad) to prepare a communique to be share with the general student body of the department/society
I have tasked my secretary to inform the general student populace in the society about the process and invite inputs from them. We want to promote democracy here and be transparent as possible.
I will keep you updated on our progress.
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All pictures used in this post were taken by our phone and screenshots were taken with my phone.
