Student Union

Constitutional Council has determined that students currently abroad may not run for a seat in the Legislature.

March 25, 2009 In re: Running From Abroad ASSOCIATE JUSTICE TAYLOR, joined by Associate Justice COHEN, Associate Justice JONES, Associate Justice LAM, and Chief Justice ZAIA, delivers the Opinion of the Court: On February 23, 2009, a constituent submitted a grievance to Constitutional Council requesting review on a decision by the Election Commissioner. A student of Washington University in St. Louis who is currently studying abroad had asked if he could run for the 2009-2010 term of Treasury. The Election Commissioner decided that the Constitution prohibited students currently abroad from running for any office except those in School and Class Councils. Thus, the question posed is whether a student who is currently studying abroad is allowed to run for a seat on a Legislative body in Student Union Elections. Constitutional Council looked at this issue in two ways, following two lines of reasoning. In both cases we reached the same conclusion. The first, which was the same reasoning the Election Commissioner used in his decision, concerns Student Union Statutes Article 4, Section 4, a, which states “[a]ll candidates must be available to complete the entire term of office for which they are running.” This year, the new Officers of Student Union will be inducted on March 31, 2009. While the exact date may change, it will always be well before the school year is complete. Furthermore, during that month the legislature makes many of its most important decisions, including electing its leadership and passing the General Budget. Thus, since candidates will not be available to complete their entire term of office, they are not able to run. The logic holds so long as new members are sworn in during the semester they were elected. The second line of reasoning follows from the definition of “constituency.” The Student Union Constitution Article II, Section 1 states that “[t]he constituents of Student Union shall consist of all undergraduate students of Washington University in St. Louis upon payment of the Student Activity Fee,” and Section 3 of that article continues stating that “[o]nly constituents of the Student Union may hold office.” In all study abroad programs, students pay WU tuition, WU health insurance, and miscellaneous charges, usually including Room/Board. To be clear, “WU tuition covers only the educational costs associated with a study abroad program.”[1] Since students studying abroad do not pay the Student Activities fee, which is primarily for on-campus programming, they are not constituents of Student Union and are therefore not eligible to run for office. The reasoning for this decision matches that used in “In re: Student Group President on Leave of Absence.” Constitutional Council has determined that, due to both reasons listed above, students currently abroad may not run for a seat in the Legislature. There was no dissent. [1]This description is found on the costs of any program listed at http://artsci.wustl.edu/~overseas/. Webpage last modified: March 10, 2009.

Attached is the unanimous opinion of the court. These are the summary points, please see the full decision for reasoning. 1) It is the right of any Student Union constituent to propose legislation. 2) The General Budget is not legislation. 3) Neither Budget Allocations nor Budget Appeals are legislation. 4) As such, none of the above is subject to Presidential veto.