lUe. Ciwofu/iob ^owuajoA Volume XI, Number 1^* The Student Newspaper of tlie University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, North Carolina November 25, 1975 Student referendum on new proposed Student Constitution to be held in December By Michael Evans During the first week of December, there will be a student referendum on the new proposed student Constitution. A new constitution has been drafted because the present one has not been approved by the Chancellor. Changes have been made to make the new document more in compliance with the Chancellor’s desires as well as better for the student body as a whole. Terry Fulbright, Chairman of the Judicial Committee of the Student Legislature, has headed the drive to get the Constitution before the students for the referendum. A number of changes have taken place between the present document and the proposed one. Fulbright discussed these changes. Article 1, concerning the Student Fees Commission, will be “instituting what we have already put into effect. Under the old set-up, the Fees Commission was set up by the Chancellor but the students will be approving is as a part of the Constitution this time. The article specifies officers, the Student Body Comptroller and certain issues such as voting procedures, ” said Fulbright. Article II of the proposed Student Constitution is mainly concerned with the various aspects of the Executive Branch of the Student Body Government. The second article explains the Executive Branch of the Student Government. The major change, according to Fulbright, is the elimination of the Vice President. “The reason is that presently all the Vice President does is chair the Legislature. Some people elected to the position of Vice President in the past have not been qualified to do the job and have not come to the meetings. Legislature will pick its own speaker. It was considered stupid to have the Vice President just waiting around for the President to leave, ” said Fulbright. The Legislature will pick someone who is qualified, Fulbright feels, to fill the position of speaker of the Legislature. The proposed constitution specifies the President of the Student Body shall have the power to freeze funds, preferably in matters of “political controversey” says Fulbright, adding the Student Body Comptroller would have the power to freeze funds for financial reasons. Other changes in the second article include the addition of the Attorney General who evolved over the years. Again the present position was simply placed in the constitution as it was not in the present one. The Election and Publicity Board is abolished. The Election and Publicity Staff takes over many of the responsibilities of the Board and will be told “to run elections. They will report violations and decide who can run, ’’says Fulbright. Decisions of the Election and Publicity Staff may be appealed to the Student Court. The apportionment of Legislature, which has been a problem in the past, is cleared' up by the new constitution. The enrollment is too large and the number year was cut to 35 members. Still at times, it gets to be a madhouse. U takes five minutes for a roll call vote. The new constitution allows the ;^gislature to reapportion itself by law. They’re not bound by some rigid lormula. We would have had 45 members this year if we had gone by the dd rule,” said Fulbright. The third article concerns the Student Judiciary. A new court is added which is called the Student Court. The Student Court will serve as a review board, screening cases with the Student being able to appeal to the Student Superior Court. “Hopefully, they (the Student Superior Court) will be able to handle parking and traffic violations for students, ” says Fulbright. There was basically no change in the article on the University Program Board according to Fulbright. The Student Media Board article does away with the Student Legislature representative to that body and does not require the Student Media Board to make their financial reports to the Student Legislature but rather to the Student Fees Commission. “Colleges may set up College Councils even in the old Constitution, but it was'never enforced. The councils plan student programs and usually for the close-'knit colleges like Architecture. It gives them the authority to do it if they want to, ” said Fulbright. The committee felt the need to add the position of ombudsman to the Student Association. Fulbright said its purpose “is to arbitrate cases that would not be within the Student Superior Court’s jurisdiction per se. A person would hear the facts and make a decision and the decision is binding. The ombudsman must not serve in any other capacity. “While Student Government, Student Media Board and the University Program Board are basically independent, there is some overlap.” The new constitution makes it a little harder for legislators to amend and a little easier for students to amend the document. More time is also allowed for the amendment to get off the ground than was allowed in the present consliluion. The document affects the students in that it gives the students the right to recall and allows tliem to have more control over the Legislature, ” says Fulbright. “Ratification and review does not take place until January. People who hold offices effected do not go out of office unless they agree to it. There will also be a mandatory review of the document if it is necessary. " said Fulbright. _ Copies of the Constitution be picked up in the Student Government offices in the Cone University Center anytime the Center is open. Hiring and paying of State Personnel Employees complicated process By Brad Rich UNCC’s method for hiring and paying SPA (State Personnel Employees) is a complicated and intricate process. According to Don Currie, Director of Personnel, new positions must be budgeted in advance. For example, when the new McEniry Building was being built, the Personnel Department budgeted for several positions, which were reviewed and approved. These people, including maintenance workers and others, were then on duty by the time the building opened. Each person hired must have a job description made out by the person who is going to need, his services. For each position, a minimum of three people are reviewed with the ultimate choice being made again by the person who needs the applicant. Starting pay depends primarily on the grade classification of the position. A grade 49 employee, for example, receives a basic starting salary of $4,764 while a grade 79 employee (of which there is only one on campus) starts at $18,780. Raises may be made in several different ways. For the first two years, raises are practically automatic, then a merit system is used. Each year the State allocates two-thirds of the money needed Standing committee chairmen selected for Senate By Michael Evans In a special session os the University Senate held November 20, the body elected officers of the Senate and standing committee chairmen and settled the status of the body’s Executive Committee. Barry Jenkins, Dr. Gaines Liner and Doug Lerner were chosen to head the standing committee. Jenkins, a fourth year Architecture student with three years experience on the University Senate was selected to head the University Planning Committee. Dr. Liner, an economics professor, accepted the chair of the Finance Committee. Liner is a first year member of the Senate, but no members of the Finance Committee fron the year before are still on the Senate. Lerner is a second year Physics student also in his first year on the University Senate. He was chosen to head the Juman Relations committe. All three standing committee chairmen were chosen by acclamation. Bill Marchant of the College of Architecture was elected to act as secretary for the body. The body decided to allow the make-up of the Executive Committee to consist of the following; the president of the Senate, the secretary of the Senate, the President of the faculty, and president of the student body, the president of the the staff and the chairmen of each of the standing committees. The staff, as it does not yet have a president, is allowed to have a representative on the Committee until such time as a president can be elected. The members of the Senate fron the staff chose Gene Meachem as their representative. After the formation of the Executive Committee, the Senate immediately gave the committee two problems to work on. First, a number of ambiguities were noticed by some senators in the present constitution and secondly, the assignment of staffered terms ( both one-year and two-year) for senators were both assigned to the Executive corrimittee for consideration. During the discussion period, some mention was made of the Senate body being once removed from the Chancellor as Earl Backman has been named the Chancellor’s liaison to the Senate. Marchant said the Senate could now take an opposite view of the Chancellor since he is no longer a member of the body. Marchant said, “ Being once removed brings about a democratic process. We are no longer lackeys of the process.” to give each person in the merit range a raise. Tiiis results in not everyone in (he merit range receiving a raise each year, but almost guarantees an eventual raise for the employee who does his job well. Another way a raise can be obtained is through promotion within the University. When a position becomes open in the systen, all employees are allowed to apply for it. Says Currie, “Wc generally advertise on campus at least one week before taking any other recruitment action.” This would include advertising with the area newspapers. A change in an employee’s job description can also obtain him a raise. If an employer realizes that he is overloading an employee, he may ask for the employee’s job description to be reviewed. This seems to be a fairly common occurrence, especially in a growing University such as UNCC, when a person hired as a secretary actually becomes an administrative assistant. Currie also feels UNCC has excellent fringe benefits. The program, which can amount to as much as 26 to 27% of an employee’s total salary, includes Blue-Cross/Blue-Shield Insurance, Disability Pay, an excellent retirement plan, and in the first year, ten days vacation, ten days sick leave and ten paid holidays. Also included in the program arc Workman’s Compensation, Unemployment insurance and group life and accident insurance plans. Currie also said the University is an equal opportunity employer, and under the guidlines of the Title IX Program, hopes to have a grievance procedure specifically for charges of sex discrimination in university programs. Another interesting aspect of the Personnel Department is the new rule pertaining to privacy of employee’s records. The new law, which will go into effect on February 1st, 1976, will make it impossible for people to see an employee’s personal records without a good and legitimate reason. Currie feels the new law is a definite improvement on the present policy which makes all employee’s records open to the public scrutiny. Said Currie, “I don’t feel that a person’s credit Union or insurance status should be able to be seen by just anyone.” Certainly then, this would seem to be a step in the right direction.

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