Members of Student Congress heard arguments from Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society on how student government should be reformed Tuesday night.

Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society had previously parliamentary spoken out of order and interrupted the Student Congress meeting on Sept. 22 when they began their Take Back UOSA! campaign.

Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society had two members speak before Congress: former UOSA Graduate Student Senate member Nicholas Harrison and Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society spokesman Matt Bruenig.

“I initially was not a part of SDS until I saw what they were campaigning for,” said Harrison, law and business graduate student. “I was a member of the Graduate Student Senate [from fall 2008 to spring 2009], and the biggest thing we did was approve of a mixer. I tried to pass initiatives on things like sexual orientation but it was lost in committee, and no one wanted to talk about them when they were brought up.”

Harrison said as someone who was formerly active in student government, he has personally seen disappointments in student representative government.

“We are proposing a constitutional change that gives student organizations like SDS and GLBTF a voice in Congress,” Harrison said. “We also want uncontested races to automatically come up for re-election in the next general election.”

Harrison mentioned to members of Congress that they could have extended the deadline to allow people more time to sign up to run for office, but they chose not to last spring.

“We want to merge the Graduate Student Senate and the Student Congress together as one legislating body and preserve the districts as they are now,” said Matt Bruenig, Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society spokesman. “We want to create a new body in which student organizations come together as one body and offer bills and ideas that aren’t always addressed by Congress now.”

Bruenig said student organizations are more aware of specific needs than members of Congress are by just representing the student body by districts according to colleges.

“We are currently OK with the status quo of student government and a large overhaul could be detrimental to effective student government on campus,” said UOSA spokesman Spencer Pittman.

Members of Congress asked questions and commented about the proposed new bodies’ function and the Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society campaign.

“The specific members you are punishing through a recall election are the ones that are working for the same goals and desires as your group,” said Forrest Bennett, a University College representative. “If you wanted to sit in Congress, why didn’t you run in the spring like I did for my University College seat?”

Bruenig said the campaign to change UOSA is not about getting members of Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society elected to Congress, but the group wants to reform the way legislation is brought up and the legislative system itself.

“You say that the Congress doesn’t represent people well through the district system, but I talk to the people I represent everyday,” said Matt Gress, UOSA Student Congress vice chairman.

But Harrison said the newly proposed body would improve communication on legislative ideas in student government.

He also said the proposed new body is similar to the student government model at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, in which the student organizations meet under one body on legislation and pass it to the other body that is a mixture of what OU has as a Graduate Student Senate and the Undergraduate Student Congress.

“The body we are suggesting will run like the Student Congress, but will be full of representatives from student organizations,” Harrison said.

Pittman said Student Congress is glad the Oklahoma Students for Democratic Society has agreed to work with them and that UOSA will review their suggestions for reform.