The Government of the Student Body’s senate bill Constituency Council Clarification has been vetoed by GSB President, Daniel Fischer, senior in agricultural business.

The bill states that nowhere does GSB constituency councils describe what a constituency council should be and this problem has recently been the focus of much discussion and legislation.

The bill outlines qualifications of a constituency council, such as the organization shall facilitate the flow of information from students to GSB and vice versa. At least 50 percent of the voting members on a vote to nominate senators for vacancies must not be that constituencies own GSB representatives and in the event that the organization does not meet the qualifications, legislation shall be authored to review its status as the GSB recognized constituency council.

But Fishcer wrote in a memo that “the action that requires at least 50 percent of voting Constituency Council members voting on nominations to not be current GSB Senators brings up the issue of jurisdiction.”

Each constituency council is responsible for the representation of their own respective area, and this includes nominating senators, he said. Fischer noted that Article II, Section I of the GSB Constitution states “In the event that a Senate seat becomes vacant prior to the next general election, a replacement, nominated by the recognized constituency council, may be seated by a majority vote of the Senate until the next election.”

He said that the style each council takes in nominating senators is essentially their decision to make, as GSB governing documents don’t rule over constituency councils.

“Our system is modeled after federalism, in which the central government and the divisions share power, but the central government allows the divisions to decide how they would like to represent,” Fischer said.

Additionally, Tom Hill, vice president for student affairs, committed to contributing $300 to respective constituency councils. Fischer said that while he agrees that Hill’s pledged contributions would help to improve operations, “it is not an Agriculture and Life Science or IFC student’s right to instruct how an Engineering, IRHA, or Off-Campus leader should be representing their respective students,” he said.

Fischer said he doesn’t agree with forward legislating that is based on assumptions.

“None of us surely know if $300 will generate significant success,” he said. “This year, GSB doubled expenditures on efforts to get candidates to run for office, yet fewer candidates are running for Senate elections.”

Fischer said “the veto is a philosophical difference in the current ideology taken by the Senate, but the constitutionality is of greatest concern…If this is overridden, I plan to take subsequent action to receive a final determination of this matter,” he said.