On April third, Hobart Student Government and William Smith Congress announced that the referendum to merge the two student governments and adopt a new constitution had passed. This culminates a long series of conversations and changes in student government at the Colleges, including last year’s amended constitutions which made the texts governing the two institutions nearly identical.
While for current and former students who advocated for this change it may seem like a long time coming, as recently as 2019 the “Report on Contemporizing the Colleges’ Coordinate System” written by the Board of Trustees’ Student Experience Committee treated their separation as an inevitability, recommending that HWS
“Emphasize the importance of the student government associations – William Smith Congress and Hobart Student Government – in the ways in which they represent their specific constituencies and the ways in which they work together to improve the experience at the Colleges for all students.”
Separate student governments go back to the earliest days of the Coordinate System— a cursory search of Herald archives shows mention of a “William Smith Student Government” in 1942, before the elevation of William Smith to equal status with Hobart as an independent college. In recent years, this long legacy of separation has come to a close as separate meetings of both governments ended and they began to move in lockstep.
According to Sophia Mughal, the final President of William Smith Congress the leadership of the student governments observed that “the two separate student governments did not accurately reflect the sentiment of the student body. This then suggested to us that our current system is a hinderance on the ability to represent and address the needs of students.”
The new constitution included additional changes to the structure of student government beyond merging the two organizations. Treasurer, Vice President and Secretary roles were replaced by Vice Presidents of Finance, Strategic Initiatives and Compliance and new Liason positions created. Mughal said that
“In the past, when Hobart Student Government and William Smith Congress operated separately, it made sense to have two of every position. Now that we work jointly, and have been for many years, we no longer have the need for two of each position. In addition to the issue of redundancy, we felt that these positions were also not tailored to the needs of the Executive Board.”
While the referendum passed successfully, there were some initial concerns when the merger was first proposed this year, which echoed those from past attempts. Namely, students were concerned that removing designated positions for William Smith students might lead to an all-Hobart student government. According to official statistics, the Colleges have more women enrolled than men, a trend which is likely to continue and William Smith students have generally been more actively involved in student government in the recent past. On Monday, the first group of students were elected to positions within HWS Student Government, including significant representation from William Smith students.