Student Congress passes changes to Student Code

On Tuesday night, the rules and judiciary committee of Student Congress passed changes to two titles of the Student Code, while eliminating another.

Speaker of Student Congress Zach De La Rosa — the creator of the changes to the Student Code — led the meeting with his proposals, which were all passed unanimously by the committee.

Titles I and IV were amended for clarity, while Title VII was completely removed.

“The goal is to clarify laws rather than change them,” De La Rosa said.

Title I was amended to provide requirements for student government offices and recognition of committees.

One of the amendments included adding a clause that requires every member of student government to be enrolled as a full-time, fee-paying student at UNC.

The amendments combined ideas from Titles III, IV, V and VI into one single title, doing things such as condensing the oaths of office for all branches of student government into one.

“These regulations are now structured in a way that logically makes sense,” he said.

Title I now serves as a clear place for recognizing committees, which previously were located in the now-removed Title VII.

Title VII contained lists of extinct committees and lacked new ones that had been created.

“Instead of deciphering 161 pages to find your committee, they are all right here,” De La Rosa said.

Title IV — which was cut from 16 pages to five pages — mostly defined expectations for the executive branch.

“While it is not telling them what to do, it is telling them what they don’t do will have impeachable effects,” De La Rosa said.

The changes to the Student Code will be addressed at the Sept. 27 full meeting of Student Congress.

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