Our Next Steps for Student Governance

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Dear Patriots,

This week marks an important time for Student Government and student governance as a whole here at Mason Korea. As we gradually transition from Student Council to Student Government over the Spring 2023 semester and the weeks to come, our goal as representatives of the student body is to create a form of governance that is equitable and accessible to everyone within our community.

As such, we write with great excitement that we have passed our new set of governing documents, the new Student Body Constitution and Code of Student Governance, to guide us well into the upcoming years as we welcome more students, faculty, and staff to our community. We thank our counterparts at Fairfax for providing the structural backbone of these documents, which have been modified to fit the unique Korean and American context of our institution. Below are some important key takes from such a transition:

Our current University Life (Events, RSO & Student Organization, Finance & Transparency, International Student & DEI, PR) Representatives will more or less stay the same, responsible for networking between faculty, staff, and students and implementing tasks. They, now, however, will be responsible of overseeing a Department as a Secretary, which consists of the following: Administrative and Financial Affairs, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, University Life, University Academics, and Public Relations. They will be joining the Student Senate during its Senate Meetings and Committee Meetings, as described below.

Our Major Representatives - elected by the student body - will be Student Senators either chairing or joining at least two Standing Committees of the Student Senate, which consists of the following: Administrative and Financial Affairs, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, University Life, University Academics. The Student Senate shall have the sole right to sponsor, co-sponsor, and vote on legislation. In addition, Student Senators elected during Fall elections - one per academic major - will be seated on the Board of Major Representatives as Major Representatives.

To ensure a diverse and equitable Student Senate, our goal is to add Spring elections for ONLY freshmen and first-semester transfer students to join the Student Senate during the Fall semester. Different from our Major Representatives, who are also Senators, is that these positions are elected regardless of major.

Three additional positions in the Student Senate will be up for election as Senators.

To ensure and simplify some of the difficulties with electing Officers within the Student Senate, the Student Body President, Vice President, and Chief of Staff will respectively preside as Speaker, Speaker Pro-Tempore, and Clerk of the Senate. These positions are ex officio members without vote in the Senate.

The legislative process has been radically revised, where a Senator first introduces the bill to the Student Senate, and the Speaker of the Senate refers the bill or resolution to a committee to be voted upon within themselves in their nextmeeting. If such legislation passes, it is then brought into second reading in the succeeding Senate meeting(s) where the entirety of the Senate votes upon its passage.

End dates for terms have been added for clarification:

The term commencing one Monday before Fall final examinations commence and ending at 12:00pm one Monday before Spring final examinations commence is designated as the first session of the Student Senate;

The term commencing one Monday before Spring final examinations commence and ending at 12:00pm one Monday before Fall final examinations commence is designated as the second session of the Student Senate.

For more information, please refer to our website at https://mk.sg.gmu.edu (which we are in the process of updating). Should you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to us anytime.