So far this semester, Student Government Association at Wichita State has approved the addition of a new oversight and inquiry committee and changes to the responsibility of the Summer Senate.

These are only the first in a long list of edits SGA hopes to make to their Legislative Journal this year. SGA Legislative Director Andrew Longhofer hopes to make a complete overhaul of the bylaws and statutes next.

“The bylaws are a really convoluted document right now,” Longhofer said. “It’s like someone took all of the operational rules for the Senate and scrambled them with a hand-mixer.”

The bylaws of the SGA Journal consist of general policies on campus, the day-to-day procedure of SGA and the establishing of SGA positions, bodies and their authority within normal procedures.

The statutes, which exist below the bylaws, consist of actual legislation on campus and any exceptions to usual procedures. This includes the allocation of student fees and the distribution of funding to individuals and organizations.

“The statutes get a little more on the ground,” Longhofer said. “They get a little more clear, and if there are any exceptions [to day-to-day procedure], those come up typically in the statutes.”

Longhofer said there are many items currently in the statutes that should be moved into the bylaws and taken out of the statutes. One of these is the election commission.

“Here is this body that is incredibly powerful and has a lot of authority…even as much as disqualifying candidates,” Longhofer said.

However, this body is only mentioned in the statutes, which Longhofer calls “the lowest place in the Journal.”

The hierarchy of the Journal has the constitution on top, then the bylaws and then the statutes. Each level overrides the next if contradictions come up.

By moving the election commission into the bylaws, Longhofer said that their existence would not accidentally be contradicted by exceptions to their procedure in the statutes.

Along with all of these organizational changes, Longhofer hopes to change the wording of the bylaws and statutes to make them more understandable.

“There are some things in the Journal that were written specifically to sound like legislative language, and as a result, the intention got a little convoluted,” Longhofer said.

He said that changing the wording of the bylaws and statutes is something that is within his power as legislative director, so long as it is presented to the Senate.

With all of these changes, the amendment will be large.

“I think this is probably one of the bigger single bills that will have been presented in a while, just in terms of the number of pages on this thing,” Longhofer said.

He said that the document would most likely settle in the “20 page range at the longest.”

The changes are about two weeks in the making and are the first comprehensive review of the Journal since 2003. Longhofer intended to have them available to the Senate before today’s meeting, so senators can consider them before they are seen in meeting.

If the amendment is passed, no changes will be made in the way SGA operates.

“The rules stay the same at the end of this bill,” Longhofer said. “It’s just how they’re presented and what rules have the authority to trump what other rules.”

Despite the hard work, Longhofer said he enjoys what he is doing.

“It’s weird, but I like legislative language and I like the component of system building,” he said. “I like the fact that when we leave in May, the Journal is going to be a good foundation for whoever ends up coming in after us.”

The SGA Legislative Journal can be found at www.wichita.edu/sga under the public records tab.