The constitutional convention met on Sunday to further discuss possible changes to the current Government of the Student Body constitution, focusing on the checks and balances of each branch of government.

One change discussed was to give the student body the ability to vote on all resolutions and major funding bills brought before the Senate.

David Ammann, off campus, said this would be done by using ISU Cards to vote on the bills. The committee will use the identification cards during Veishea when students will be asked to vote on the new constitution.

In past elections, an average of 10 percent of the student body has voted in elections.

“This will hopefully make more people involved in the government. It will provide opportunities for the students to have direct power,” Ammann said.

Doug Miller, a member of the steering committee for the constitutional convention, disagreed with some of the components of Ammann’s idea.

“I don’t see that being very efficient, I believe in a representative democracy,” Miller said.

He said giving students the right to vote on resolutions and funding would take away the basic powers of the Senate.

In order for the new constitution to become effective, 20 percent of the student body is needed to vote on it, and half of those who vote must approve it.

Ammann said students will be better involved if they are allowed to take an active role in their government.

Miller also discussed the possible elimination of the executive branch, and, to an extent, an idea to meld it with the legislative branch of GSB. He said the two branches of the government act together on several issues.

“Why not just make it official?” Miller said.

In Miller’s plan, the Senate would elect a non-voting spokesperson for the Senate who would serve as “president.”

The Senate would also elect a chairman or chairwoman of the senate who would set agendas and guidelines. In the current government, this official is the vice-president.

Miller’s plan would give the president less power.

“Right now the president has a disproportionate amount of power. I want to take their trends and make them work in one setting,” Miller said.

Miller also created the role of attorney general in GSB.

The attorney general would be voted on by the Senate and would bring cases before the Supreme Court for ruling instead of waiting for students to actually file the case.

Amman said the idea of an attorney general is good. “I agree with the statement that the legislative and the executive branches are melding, but I really hesitate to take away the students’ right to have a chief officer of the student body,” Ammann said.

Members of the committee agreed to use the current GSB Constitution as a guideline for the new constitution so they do not have to entirely rewrite it.

Work has begun on rewriting the preamble and the first three articles of the constitution. The draft will be reviewed at next week’s convention meeting.

The deadline for the new constitution is April 15.

Michel Pogge, LAS, said the committee is behind where they need to be at this point in the process.

“We have a month and two weeks now, and we are at the same location as we were in September. We have ideas, and no consensus,” Pogge said.

The next meeting of the GSB Constitutional Convention is at 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 2, in the Memorial Union.