Amendment 12 asks Florida’s voters the toughest question on the 2012 ballot? Not really. 

Yet, for this question, the 2012 Legislature suspended discussions on rebuilding Florida’s economy, reforming the state’s higher education system, and drawing 10-year legislative district maps so that they could ensure that Amendment 12 passed through six committees and the floor of both the Florida House and Senate.

The Legislature is asking us whether Florida’s student body presidents should elect the student member of the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the State University System, when they meet as members of the Florida Student Association.

The FSA was founded in 1976 and has been electing the student representative since the creation of the Board of Governors in 2001. This process of selection has yielded diverse and highly qualified student leaders for over a decade, and the structure of the organization has ensured accountability and fairness, so that all universities' interests are represented -- not just the home school of the representative.

Arguments that the FSA is a pay-to-play organization are unfounded. FSA does not charge dues for participation, and schools such as Florida State which have not participated in years past, have participated in all FSA meetings this year. They voted to elect the new student member of the Board of Governors at the meeting held last May.

The alternative to the FSA is forming a new council under the Board of Governors, composed of the same student body presidents, to meet under a new name to elect their representative.

The same people, doing the same thing, but under a new name – sure sounds like something that warrants changing the Florida Constitution, doesn’t it?

Aside from the redundancy, with this council it is unclear if the same accountability measures will stay in place, and whether there will be effective communication between students and their representative on the board like the FSA has provided for over a decade.

With hopes that some history will provide better context, here is a summary of the issue’s history: A similar bill was filed during the 2011 legislative session, but “died” in its first committee due to an apparent lack of merit. It was filed again in 2012, but the bill’s intent was slightly altered. This time the bill proposed to change the Constitution to give the governor the power to appoint the Board of Governors’ student representative.

In my opinion, the bill had little chance of progressing through the legislative process until it got a boost of political life support during my term as the student representative on the Board of Governors. That came shortly after I raised questions about the creation of a 12th university and the power of a prominent senator who was pushing the bill.

The comments made at a November Board of Governors meeting carried over to the halls of Tallahassee and elevated the political feasibility of Amendment 12. Fortunately, the bill was amended to prevent the delegation of power to the governor, but the attack on the Florida Student Association was already under way and the bill was destined to pass.

It is concerning that the Legislature dedicated so much time to bring this issue to our attention on the ballot, and in my opinion the amendment is unnecessary and belittles the importance of the Florida Constitution.



Michael Long, the 2011-2012 student representative on the Board of Governors, currently is a board member of the Florida Student Association. His above statement is personal opinion. The FSA as a board has chosen not to take a stance on the amendment.