Although many students may not know exactly what Jeremy Harrell does as executive vice president of Associated Student Government (ASG), they no longer need to feel bad about it because as of Tuesday, his position-along with two other cabinet positions-no longer exists.
After 18 months, several rewrites, three public information sessions and two student senate meetings, ASG unanimously passed the long-awaited Executive Reorganization Act of 2007 Tuesday night.
The act effectively terminates the cabinet roles of executive vice president, vice president for student services and communication director.
The executive vice president, elected by the student body, primarily chairs all student senate meetings and serves as the head of ASG's election committee.
The vice president for student services, also elected by the student body, primarily chairs the Student Legal Services Board as well as produces the First-Year Record.
The communication director, elected by student senate, markets and advertises ASG events and maintains the ASG Web site.
ASG felt it would be the most advantageous to replace and reshuffle the duties of these positions to newly created offices: student body vice president, president of the senate, secretary for public relations and technology director.
The student body vice president will be elected by the student body in March and will take on the task of chairing ASG's elections committee and Student Legal Services Board.
The president of the senate will be chosen by student senate and will chair all senate meetings.
The secretary for public relations will also be chosen by senate and will absorb the job of producing the First-Year Record and publicizing all ASG events
The technology director will be chosen by certain members of ASG and IT Services, and will maintain the ASG Web site.
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Despite these "monumental" changes, ASG members are confident that the act is a step in the right direction.
"This act means that cabinet will be operating in a much more efficient manner," said Douglas Haynes, co-author of the bill.
The bill was initially introduced last year after ASG formed a task force, consisting of then-Student Body President Brian Alexander, Parliamentarian Colleen Beirne, current Student Body President Jens Sutmöller and President Pro Tempore Haynes, to look at ways to improve the body of ASG as a whole.
After comparing Miami's student government to that of other universities such as Notre Dame, University of Virginia and Ohio State University, the group drafted the bill at the end of the last school year.
Nothing was done over the summer since ASG wanted to wait to hear the recommendations of Peter Magolda, a professor of educational leadership, who sat in on ASG meetings for two years, with the intention of recommending how to make ASG a more effective body.
Once he presented his findings in late October, the authors of the bill-including Sutmöller-made tweaks to his draft before presenting the act at student senate.
"I'm extremely happy (the act passed) after 18 months of hard work," Sutmöller said. "It makes ASG more accessible ... when Joe in Morris Hall looks at our structure, he can now just go to the vice president of student organization if he's looking for info about student orgs."
The act also calls for a title change of the vice president of management, who chairs the funding committee that funds Miami's student organizations, to the vice president of student organization.
The authors of the bill also looked for fresh perspectives on ASG, employing the help of first-year senator Heath Ingram to point out any flaws he saw in cabinet before getting too accustomed to ASG's current ways.
"(Ingram) asked some great questions," Sutmöller said. "Everything we talked about in 16 months was called to question in two months."
As for Harrell, who now must apply these position changes for the upcoming cabinet elections in March, he is for the reshuffling of positions and power within ASG, and is making sure word gets out to the student body about the importance of the new positions.
"It's going to make it so ASG works more efficiently," he said. "(The new role of student body vice president) is better laid out, what the VP does, and it's a more prolific position in my opinion."
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