Bylaws

I. Membership [who, how many, where do reps come from]

A. Each Student Council representative must be a current student in good academic standing, who is passing their semester in the expected timeframe in order to remain on council.

B. Student Council members are elected by each residency once a year to serve a term of one (1) calendar year, or until their studies are finished if they will graduate before one full calendar year transpires. During the course of that year, members will make themselves known and available to other students in their residency, share information to students, hear student concerns, and act as an advocate for students in the operation of Goddard College., in whatever capacity possible and necessary.

C. The Student Council will be transparent with other governing bodies at Goddard, but will maintain student to student confidentiality. We will strive to give transparency of our work on the Council, and will make our work known to our constituents at least once during the term in office. The Student Council will work to communicate with their constituents in order to ensure their work reflects the needs of the students, as well as their own goals and ideals for student governance.

D. Student Council is made up of currently enrolled students, not faculty, staff, or alumni. However, members may be staff or alumni if they are also currently enrolled students. Members of the Alumni Council are colleagues of the Student Council, but their membership does not overlap. A Student Council member may decide to invite alumni to give input on matters at hand, but alumni will not be able to vote.

E. Student Council On-Boarding is required for all new members. The on-boarding process is offered online (asynchronous) or in-person (synchronous as needed). New council members will have 15 days to complete the on-boarding. Failure to complete the on-boarding process will automatically move any newly elected member to non-participatory status. Participatory status will be regained once on-boarding has been completed.

F. The Student Council has established a Student Council Advisory Committee. This advisory committee is made up of non-elected, non-voting members who may participate by bringing concerns, suggestions, expertise, and/or questions to the Student Council or the respective representative.

II. Election and Term of Service [procedure for election and how long reps serve]

A. The term of service will ideally be one academic year, though a single semester is acceptable based on council members’ standing in the college.

B. Each program/residency/cohort elects up to three (3) Student Council members. Regardless of how many candidates run for a single residency, there will be an election where students from that program/residency/cohort vote for those candidates. This voting process shall occur during the residency and a decision shall be made prior to the start of the semester. If more than three (3) candidates are running, then a Ranked-Choice Voting, would be how those candidates are selected to serve. If no program residency election takes place, the Student Council will vote to bring uncontested candidates onto the Student Council.
➢ MFAIA-VT
➢ MFAIA-W
➢ UGP 1
➢ UGP 2
➢ GGI
➢ EDU-VT
➢ EDU-WA
➢ MFAW-VT
➢ MFAW-WA
➢ PSY

C. Outgoing members will attend one final meeting to introduce the newly elected representatives for their program to the council.

D. Should a dispute arise about a candidate, the standing Representatives shall work with Student Life and the Student Council to settle the dispute. The manner in which this shall be done is up to the discretion of the Representatives program/residency/cohort.

III. Meetings and Procedures/Organization [how we structure ourselves, who does what, how do we bring up business, vote, refer things out, how do we conduct a meeting, what do we do if we need to make a big decision]

A. The Student Council will hold standing meetings on the first Monday of every month throughout the academic year as needed. Student Council will offer open sessions at the beginning of each regular monthly meeting for Student Participation. Student Council will allot 15 minutes for these sessions.

B. Student Council meetings may be conducted in multiple forms, from closed meetings, subcommittee meetings, other internal meetings and/or meetings open to the wider student body.

C. Student council positions will be decided on in the first meeting of a new term. These positions are non hierarchical and only exist for the purpose of running the meetings smoothly. These positions include a Facilitator/Moderator, Admin. Coordinator (taking notes), Public Relations Coordinator and a Scheduling Coordinator (schedule meetings).

D. Subcommittees can be formed as necessary to address specific situations/tasks and will report back to the student council.

E. All meetings will address the agenda and leave room for closed session business.

F. Business that is open for discussion can be handled one of three ways:

1. Motion is called and seconded to vote on a decision

2. Business is tabled for later and/or sent to committee

3. Business is tabled indefinitely (Due to constraints such as time or priority; record is kept and business will be carried over until the council has an opportunity to address it.)

G. Eligible council members will vote yes, no, or abstain (an abstain vote will not be counted). Eligible council members will consist of those that have completed the Student Council On-Boarding. Non participatory members may be deemed inactive by a Student Council vote, and therefore ineligible to vote.

1. All votes will happen first through regularly scheduled meetings.

2. If a vote is required before or after a regular scheduled meeting, then these votes will be organized through Google forms, that will then be sent to all voting members via email. If the council deems that another form is needed for members to vote, the council must temporarily amend the bylaws (for every vote not sent via email).

3. To pass a vote, a 50% + 1 majority of eligible voting members must participate in the vote, and 50% + 1 of voting members must vote “yes.” If 50% + 1 participation is not achieved, or if the number of members voting to abstain results in fewer than 50% + 1 votes of “yes,” the motion is tabled and brought back to Council for further discussion and a new vote.

H. We will record meetings via Zoom (or other online audio/video platform), which will be shared with all of the current student council members; any student can view recordings of open sessions via the Student Council website. Closed session recordings are confidential to council members, and cannot be shared.

I. Full student body meetings will be recorded via video, and the recordings will be provided to the student body via the Student Council website.

IV. Accountability [who are we accountable to and what happens if we fail to uphold terms and accountability]

A. Representatives are accountable and responsible to themselves and the council. This might look like:

1. attending meetings (half of monthly standing meetings)

2. letting the council know ahead of time if you cannot attend a meeting

3. following through on tasks.

4. maintaining student confidentiality and using discretion when discussing sensitive Council business outside of closed sessions

B. Student Council may determine, by majority vote as outlined herein, to remove a member for reasons of accountability as included, but not limited to, the above. Should a member be removed, other current members representing the same program/residency/cohort shall engage their program/residency/cohort in either electing a new representative or deciding to leave the seat unfilled. Should the removal of the member result in no representation from that program / residency / cohort on the Council, the Council shall enlist Student Life to engage that program/residency/cohort in electing a new representative.

C. Representatives are accountable and responsible to themselves and their program/residency/cohort. This might look like:

1. participating in residencies and related events outside of the formal residency week

2. addressing the concerns, suggestions, and questions of the students from the program/residency/cohort they represent. If they are unable to address these on the program-level, or if they deem it necessary, they will bring these to the Council as a whole. If a student is not comfortable bringing the topic first to their representative, or if their issue is not being addressed by their representative, they can bring the topic to the Council as a whole.

3. Communicating Student Council updates to their program/residency/cohort as often as needed/wanted.

D. Each council member’s program/residency/cohort can hold them accountable. If the program/residency/cohort deems that their member needs to be removed, it is up to the program/residency/cohort to elect a new representative or choose to leave the seat unfilled.

E. Representatives are accountable and responsible to themselves and the entire student body. This might look like:

1. attending council meetings that involve the student body

2. participating in student events.

F. Representatives are accountable and responsible to themselves and the college and program. This might look like:

1. maintaining good academic standing and passing the semester, as determined by the council rep's advisor and program head

2. abiding by Goddard's Student Life Agreement.

G. The council as a whole is accountable and responsible to itself and the school and the student body. This might look like:

1. holding meetings to which the student body is invited, both during

residency and throughout the semester

2. having open student participation sessions that are 15 minutes at the beginning of each meeting.

3. publishing minutes and recordings of the council meetings and making these available to the student body

4. maintaining communication with the Student Life Manager.

H. If someone is being disruptive or inappropriate the facilitator should make a motion followed by a second to mute or remove them from a meeting.

I. The council will resist any attempt by the College to penalize student council members for exercising our freedom of speech.

V. Powers Not Specified [In which we allow for future Student Councils to create rules and guidelines for situations as they arise, such as amending the Bylaws and other miscellaneous needs not anticipated by this current Student Council body.]

A. In the event of a situation arising not covered in these Bylaws, the Council shall convene, discuss, and resolve upon appropriate courses of action as needed.

B. Any authority regarding Council governance not outlined in this document or specified in other binding College regulations shall be reserved to the Council to exercise as needed and at its discretion.

C. Should at any time, these Bylaws need to be amended, the Council shall vote upon that resolution and do so. It is recommended that the new Bylaws are voted in with a quorum vote as outlined above, but the decision shall be reserved to the Council.

Date of Adoption: 05/23/21
Date Revised: 06/28/2022