The Otago University Students' Association will be facing a major shake-up if a motion included in a referendum held this week passes, president Francisco Hernandez says.
The question was added to the referendum by former executive member Daniel Stride and essentially proposes a return to the governance structure the OUSA had in 2010, with 17 executive members instead of 11 and the return of student general meetings.
Mr Hernandez said the referendum question came as a ''shock'' and, if passed, would cause a major shake-up in the way the association went about its business. Mr Stride had not discussed the issues raised in the referendum question with the OUSA executive before getting the 100 signatures needed to have the question included in the referendum, he said.
If it passed, there was the potential for a return to the ''bitter'' student politics of the old days and possibly a less efficient decision-making body. He also found it unusual so many amendments to the OUSA's constitution were included in one referendum question - which took up more than four pages.
''It's definitely very strange ... because there is a lot going on in one question.''
Mr Stride said the question was about increasing the level of representation provided by the OUSA.
Adding representatives for the different academic divisions and others such as queer and women's representatives would ensure a greater diversity of people would be on the OUSA executive.
''In the last few years, there has been a dangerous shift of power away from the student body to the executive and to the OUSA president,'' he said.
He accepted there were many amendments included in the one question, but said it was the only way the changes could be made.
Voting for the online referendum, which started yesterday, finishes at 4pm on Friday.
