A shorter, more concise document is the goal of a new constitution proposed for the Government of the Student Body.

Mike Pogge, LAS, calls the proposed new constitution “a document that is short and easy to remember.”

Pogge said the constitution was drafted last year by the Constitutional Convention that met throughout the year.

“We felt the old constitution was just riddled with too many problems and errors,” Pogge said.

The constitution was turned down after being voted on last spring because of low voter turnout. Since the constitution was not ratified by the senate, a 20 percent voter turn-out was needed to ratify the document.

The Constitutional Convention’s end of the year report stated 785 students voted in favor of the constitution last year, by a ratio of about four to one.

Wendell Mosby, sophomore in apparel merchandising, design and production, said he voted against the constitution because the Black Student Alliance didn’t support it.

“I think there was something in it that we voted against … they tried to take out the specialty seats and we didn’t approve of them trying to take them out,” Mosby said.

The new constitution includes specialty seats for non-traditional students, students with disabilities, international students and American ethnic minority students.

If GSB has another constitutional election this year, Mosby said he will vote the way BSA votes.

Darcie Brown, sophomore in advertising, said she didn’t vote for the constitution because she didn’t know much about it.

“There was probably a chance for me to know about it if I had taken the time to read it,” Brown said.

Jason Werning, junior in mechanical engineering, said he didn’t vote in the constitutional election because he was away on a co-op. But he said even if he had been at ISU he probably wouldn’t have voted.

“I don’t think I probably would have just because I don’t know much about it,” Werning said.

Werning said he would probably vote for the new draft if he had a chance to know about it before the election.

The new constitution will be presented first to the senate for ratification, and then a majority of students voting must vote to ratify it. There will not be a minimum voter turn-out limit, Pogge said.

Pogge said the main difference that will be seen in the new constitution is it easier to read.

“I think the first major change that GSB will notice is a document that is laid out clearly,” Pogge said. “We used the same structure of government with a few modifications.”

The vice president was not chair of the senate in the original draft, Pogge said, but remains senate chair in the currently proposed constitution. The voting privileges of the vice president were also changed.

“[The vice president] loses some power,” Pogge said.

In the current constitution, the vice president can vote to break a tie or a lack a majority on a vote that requires a two-thirds vote.

Pogge said the vice president can only vote if the vote is evenly divided, according to the new constitution.

The new constitution also establishes a senate rules committee to deal with internal senate issues, Pogge said.

“The rules committee will go over the different issues that are coming up and how they relate to the by-laws,” Pogge said.

An appointment committee in the executive branch is also established by the proposed constitution.

“The purpose [of the appointment committee] is to organize the various appointments GSB has in the ISU community and also get an outlet for various groups who need someone to sit on a committee,” Pogge said.

Pogge said his hope is to have the constitutional election during the second week of January.

“[We] feel that every candidate should know before they start running what constitution they’re going to have to adhere to,” Pogge said.