For the first time since the creation of Student Union, this Wednesday and Thursday students will elect representatives to two separate legislative bodies.

The duties of the current senate will be split between a smaller senate and the new treasury as determined by the new SU constitution, which was approved by students in the fall. The treasury will deal with internal issues concerning student groups and money, while the senate will deal with external issues concerning students’ relationship to the university.

By dividing the responsibilities of the current senate, the new constitution is designed to create greater accountability from SU representatives and increase efficiency in taking legislative action.

The new treasury will focus primarily on money matters, scrutinizing and approving the budgets of student groups more closely while also providing them with better help and assistance. According to current SU President Katie Platt, since treasury representatives will be more knowledgeable about the budgets of organizations, a more consistent allocation of funds will result.

“What I hope to see is a budget process that would continue to get more and more fair,” said SU Treasurer Jonathan Frick. “We always try to make it fair, but honestly, right now we don’t have the time or the resources or the people to investigate groups as well as we should.”

The revamped senate will be relieved of its financial duties and will address students’ concerns through special projects and resolutions. Speaker of the Senate Chris Wheat stated that students should expect “a lot more proactive, rather than reactive, change.”

“Instead of debating budget proposals, which honestly half the senators don’t care about, the senators can focus on things they do care about, like making changes and working with the administration,” said Frick.

Accountability is also an important aspect of the new senate. Since senate meetings will no longer include lengthy budget debates, “if the senate’s doing nothing, it will be readily apparent because the meeting will last seven minutes. The new system puts more pressure on senators, specifically to find projects, pass resolutions, and to really do the grunt work of SU,” said Wheat.

Student and Government Affairs Committee co-chair Gina Macchiaroli also endorsed the change in terms of efficiency.

“This gives the senate more time, rather than dealing with administrative stuff, to do more activist things,” Macchiaroli said. “I think this will provide much more activity within SU.”

There is also the possibility, however, that the opposite effect may occur.

“There is also the potential, though, that numbers will be low in both groups or that people will become disinterested, causing SU to become more ineffective. That poses huge challenges to the new speaker of the treasury and the new executive board since they’ll have to deal with the growing pains,” said Wheat.

Future senators will represent 350 students instead of 250 students, and there will be a minimum of two senators for each school. Wheat expects these new figures to reduce the size of the senate to a number somewhere in the mid 20s. The treasury has 17 seats but there are only 6 students currently on the ballot. The speaker of the treasury will fill any vacant treasury seats during the year.

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