Mitch Winterlin, University of Iowa Undergraduate Student Government’s president, issued two executive orders at the government’s Tuesday meeting. 

The orders will establish two commissions to support the student elections commissioner and create an action plan for restructuring the constituency senator roles.  

Winterlin said executive orders haven’t happened in the undergraduate student government since 2019, but their use is outlined in the organization’s bylaws. 

“There were two big things that we really wanted to focus on as an administration coming in,” Winterlin said. “What these two pieces do is they actually just create commissions or focus groups for at least two topics that we’re covering.” 

The first executive order focuses on supporting the student elections commissioner and understanding the changes made to the elections code, Winterlin said. 

“I think a lot of people have a lot of strong opinions about how the elections were run this last year, and we want to see a lot of changes,” he said. 

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Winterlin said there is already interest in supporting the student election commissioner through an ad hoc committee, which is a committee that would serve throughout the whole 2023-24 administration. But it was ultimately decided that an executive order would be best. 

“I plan on appointing different people in Senate, outside of the Senate, and from all across three branches,” Winterlin said. “We really want to be holistic in how we’re supporting the elections commissioner and determining the elections code.” 

Winterlin said the executive order has not changed the power of the student elections commissioner and the assistant student elections commissioner. 

“We’re hoping this is a step in the right direction on making sure that our elections are just more accessible for people,” Winterlin said. 

The second executive order focused on constituency senator restructuring and support. 

“Our constituency senator process is super, super important to us, and we just feel like we really want to clarify what those roles and systems can look like,” Winterlin said. 

The committee will come up with an action plan for restructuring, he said. 

Sen. Natalie Kehrli asked Winterlin if current constituency senators would be invited to serve on the commission created by the executive order. 

Winterlin said all current constituency senators and members of the Justice and Equity Commission would be invited to serve on the newly created commission. 

“I know each constituency senator has different needs for their constituencies and so we kind of want to look at that in a holistic way,” he said