By ratifying a new Student Government constitution last February, students elected to have a representative government that’s not a far cry from the one at the national level. FAU’s SG is similar to the U.S. government of three branches – legislative, executive and judicial – with checks and balances. It also has two levels of government – university-wide and campus-based.
Last year, SG controlled a $6.5 million budget of your money, made up of a $10 per credit hour tag onto your tuition called an Activity and Service Fee. With this money, SG funds clubs, hosts events and other student activities, as well as giving away free stuff like scantrons and blue books in the SG office.
The university-wide level is concerned with matters affecting all FAU students, from the northernmost Treasure Coast campus in Port St. Lucie to the southernmost Broward campuses.
The university-wide senate, made up of two senators from each individual campus and headed by the student body vice president, is responsible for legislation that affects two or more campuses – like the SG budget – constitutional amendments and approving the chief justice in SG’s judicial branch.
The student body president is the chief executive and official spokesperson of SG, responsible for passing or vetoing university-wide senate legislation, representing the students at Board of Trustee meetings, as well as enforcing the Student Body Constitution.
As with the U.S. Government, the campus-based SG is similar to the university-wide SG in form, with three branches, but different in concern by dealing only with their individual campus.
Each campus has their own house of representatives, led by a speaker with one member for every 500 hundred students based on enrollment in the previous spring. The house of representatives is responsible for passing legislation that affects its campus such as the spending of the A&S fees allocated to its campus in the SG budget.
The campus governor acts as the executive member for each campus, approving or vetoing house legislation, and “serving as the voice of the student body for their respective campus” as the Constitution says.
The judicial branch is represented in the student court, which is responsible for court cases regarding the interpretation of the Student Body Constitution, violations of the constitution, impeachment of officials and solving student or student organization disputes.
The Student Government has a long history at FAU and with the ratification of the new constitution perhaps a new day has begun in that history.
