Bill to abolish Student Congress rejected

A reform bill to rid UNC of its Student Congress was unanimously rejected when it was brought to the rules and judiciary committee for review Tuesday.

The committee voted against passing the bill on to the full Congress because it was too drastic — but still plans on working toward Student Congress reform.

The bill aimed to abolish Congress as a body by splitting it up and creating two separate 15-member boards, one legislative and one financial.

If the bill had been passed through committee, the Congress would have had to decide whether to suspend the upcoming congressional election. After the committee blocked the bill, Chelsea Miller, the bill’s sponsor, withdrew referendum to avoid a redundant debate.

But Miller, the finance committee chairwoman, said she wants to continue working toward a more efficient Congress.

“This was nothing surprising,” she said.

“But the goal of this was to start a conversation, not to live and die by the verbiage in the bill.”

She said she wanted to reduce the body to 30 members because it would make it easier to fill the positions with passionate representatives.

This theme was one of the only points members of the committee agreed on.

Zach De La Rosa, chairman of the committee, said the bill set an honorable goal but was not the right bill to fix congress.

“The idea is to get rid of useless committees,” he said. “There’s a lot in the Code that needs to be removed, but the structure of this bill really got me.”

Adam Horowitz, a representative from the finance committee who attended the meeting, said this bill brought important issues to the forefront.

“So many people don’t show up to Congress. I would rather have 30 people show up that are passionate than 27 out of 42 at a Congress session, on a good day,” he said.

The debate will continue as representatives contemplate the idea of splitting up Congress and removing parts of the Student Code that have been in tact for years.

“I just don’t like the idea of splitting up Congress,” De La Rosa said, “But I do like centralized groups and more focused committees.”

Miller said her background is in finance, not rules and judiciary, and that influenced how she wrote the bill and the response that it received as a result.

“I don’t like to lose, but I left some big chunks out of the bill, and the ideas I presented were not the ones we needed, so we’ll work towards those,” she said.

But most committee members said Student Congress does need to reform during the debate session.

“The best way to effect change is with people who care a lot about issues being discussed,” Miller said.

“This wasn’t me versus Congress.”

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.