IRHA to vote on bylaw changes

Amber Billings

Allowing more people to apply for an executive position is the purpose of a proposed bill being presented at tonight’s Inter-Residence Hall Association meeting. The three residence hall association presidents are sponsoring the bill, which will allow students to apply for the director of academic affairs position without belonging to the Order of Rose and Chessman honor society. According to IRHA bylaws, applicants are required to be members. Towers Residence Hall Association President Jonathon Weaver said that he thinks the waiver is a good idea, but he doesn’t know if parliament will pass it. “Currently the bylaws say the academic affairs person has to be a member of ORC; unfortunately, there’s not a lot of people in the group that are interested in applying,” he said. Weaver said the bill might be changed in the future to strike the bylaws altogether. “There has been an objection to the legality of waiving the bylaws,” he said. “We might just strike the bylaws instead of dancing around the issue.” The three association presidents also will propose a bill asking to seat the Internal Affairs committee. Union Drive Association President Rick Cordaro said IRHA Vice President Steve Skutnik will head the six-member group. “They will discuss issues that we feel should be voiced in IRHA about the residence halls and the Department of Residence,” Cordaro said. “They will also meet with the director of residence, Randy Alexander.” Skutnik said the six-member committee will be paying attention to the tiny IRHA details. “My committee will be going over the bylaws and making changes and improvements,” he said. Cordaro said the committee will include Richardson Court Association President Andy Walling, RCA At-Large Chris Knight, TRA At-Large Matt Heerema and UDA At-Large David Boike. Skutnik said there are already changes he wants to make to the bylaws. “There are a lot of loopholes that I’d like to fill, along with some errors that need to be fixed,” he said.