Graphic by Sana Amin/The Gazelle

On March 27, Student Government General Assembly focused on three main topics: the new constitution, a constitutional amendment related to students on leave of absence and a public safety announcement.

Casey Tirshfield, chair of the NYU Abu Dhabi Student Government Constitution Revision task force, outlined the the tentative structure of the new student government. This proposal was a revision of an earlier draft by the Executive Board, announced on Feb. 14. Tirshfield explained that the new structure would be divided between an Executive Board, a Judicial Board and a Senate.

During the GA, there was a motion to move the proposal to a referendum, which passed with 8 votes for and 4 votes against.

A motion to make a constitutional amendment to include students on leave of absence in the definition of the student body was also entertained. In the previous GA, a motion to interpret the definition of the student body as including students on leave of absence was passed. However, during this week’s GA, the motion to include students on leave of absence in the written definition of student body in the constitution failed with 6 votes for and 6 votes against. This means that the definition of the student body will be interpreted as including students on leave of absence; however, it will not appear in writing in the constitution.

Thirdly, a public safety announcement was made regarding new channels to inform students of emergencies. From now on, the Office of Public Safety will be sending text messages to students in case of emergencies. Thus, students are urged to update their contact information on the Student Portal.

Finally, the new Core curriculum was discussed. Treasurer Layan Abu-Yassin informed students that Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Development and chair of the Core Curriculum Committee, Bryan Waterman, is in the process of creating a committee with four student representatives to advise the board on the Core curriculum.