The fate of a referendum proposal that would drastically alter the structure of the Illinois Student Government will be decided by the Constitutional Review Board tomorrow, but President Marcia Fuentes questioned ISG assembly members' actions in submitting the plan over her objections.

The clash between Fuentes and assembly members comes as a second proposal that would abolish ISG completely is likely to be approved for a student referendum Nov. 11 and 12.

Time constraints and ISG by-laws required that ISG's reform plan, released by the organization's Committee on Effectiveness only last week, be submitted to the Student Elections Commission through an executive order to make the Tuesday deadline for referendum proposals. Traditionally, executive orders have been issued by the ISG president.

A proposal may be submitted for a student referendum if ISG approves the move or 10 percent of the student body — about 4,000 students — sign a petition supporting the proposal.

In an e-mail to ISG assembly members Tuesday afternoon, Fuentes refused to issue an executive order placing the reform proposal on the fall ballot, saying she felt uncomfortable with how little time students and assembly members would have to review the plan before it was put to a vote.

The proposal should be submitted instead for a referendum in the spring, she said.

Fuentes also said she was concerned about the process used by the Committee on Effectiveness to prepare the plan. None of the committee meetings were open to the public, the names of people interviewed were withheld from the public and surveys used to create the proposal had a statistical reliability of "zero to nil," she said.

ISG assembly members disagreed, and said voting on the plan in the spring meant the reforms wouldn't take effect until the spring of 2005. Any reforms approved by the student body this semester, meanwhile, would take effect after the 2004 student elections next April.

"Students would have to suffer under another year of the current structure," said assembly member Dave Fried. "Everyone was enthusiastic about this new constitution but you," he told Fuentes.

Executive Council member Andrew Fitzgerald said submitting the proposal did not mean ISG endorsed the proposal, but rather just wanted to give students a different option.

"I'm surprised (Fuentes blocked it) considering she ran on the ticket Reform Now, because now she wants students to reform later," he said.

Fried said the questions raised about the proposed constitution were minor and could easily be addressed in a spring referendum.

If the Reform ISG proposal passes next month, though, "we'd no longer even have the ability to propose referenda" in the spring, he said. The Reform ISG proposal would abolish ISG at the end of the 2003-2004 school year and shift its powers to the Student Senate Caucus, a 50-member body that is part of the Urbana-Champaign Student and Faculty Senate.

In response to Fuentes' e-mail, ISG assembly members frantically looked for a way to override Fuentes' ruling Tuesday night. Assembly members gathered more than 1,000 signatures in six hours by traveling to residence halls, libraries and nearby bars.

While the signature drive was unsuccessful, the SEC accepted an "executive order" late Tuesday signed by 18 of the 20 ISG assembly members. Assembly members argued that the ISG constitution stated that ISG vice president Sherwin Yen and Executive Council member Andrew Fitzgerald could issue an executive order without Fuentes' approval if three-fourths of assembly members agreed.

Fuentes called assembly members' actions "unconstitutional and against the best interests of students."

Fitzgerald responded by calling Fuentes' appeal to the Constitutional Review Board "humorous."

The ISG proposal would divide student government into four independent branches — legislative, executive, judicial and financial. The ISG assembly's legislative power would be transferred to the Student Senate Caucus.

Meanwhile, a proposal submitted by the registered student organization Reform ISG appeared likely to have well over the number of petition signatures needed to make the fall ballot, said SEC chair Jessica Flanigan. However, it will take until Thursday evening to officially tally and verify the petition signatures, she said.

Reform ISG member Vilas Dhar said the approval of his group's proposal would be "the culmination of many months of work by many people."

The Constitutional Review Board will meet today at 5:30 p.m. at the Green Street Coffeehouse.