Senate deliberates over elections controversy

The Senate elections contoversy is still churning.

In hopes of coming to some understanding and conclusion on the debate about Senate elections, senator candidates juniors Katie Shorb and Cindy Bello, sophomore Kristen Keniray and first-year Benjamin Joffe-Walt attended Sunday's Senate meeting. The four represent a group of concerned students who believe that Senate elections are currently being conducted unfairly.

Several nominees were given only a 24 hour notice of their candidacy before the elections began. They were required to have their candidate statements and organizational endorsements submitted within a day of being notified. The four say this was not enough time to receive endorsements from campus organizations.

Several of the students who were nominated had decided that they would mobilize and voice concerns of marginalized communities if elected to Senate. This group felt that the inability to get organizational endorsements from the communities they represent would have a detrimental effect on their campaigns.

Senators, however, were in a bind. According to the Senate constitution, nominations must last for 12 days and elections must be completed before reading period. The nominations process was started late, and in order to receive enough votes for validity, elections began immediately.

The constitution also states that all candidate endorsements must appear alongside the candidates name on the ballot. Because the ballots had already been printed, late nominees could not get organizational endorsements.

"How did you make the decision not to postpone the elections?" asked Joffe-Walt, when the discussion began. When sophomore senator Micah Thorner explained, showing the four the Senate constitution, Joffe-Walt responded, "It feels like you are giving us a bureaucratic response."

"[Shorb, Keniray, Joffe-Walt and Bello] didn't understand the process that confined us," said junior senator Jonathan Curley. "We all live under the same constitution," said sophomore senator Erika Hansen. "People are not given advantage by [it]."

Senators agreed that there was no way to postpone the elections. They did, however, agree that in the future these matters might be handled better. "There was not enough publicity on the part of Senate," said Thorner. Sophomore Aaron Leavy and first-year Liane Lau agreed. "Students don't understand what Senate does," stated Lau. "There are ways we can educate better," added Leavy.

When it was understood that elections must continue, Keniray called for other action. "You can take accountability," she said when senators asked what they would like to see happen. "I'm not going to say I'm sorry for process," responded Thorner during evaluations at the end of the meeting. First-year Christian Koch agreed, "Senate really needs to stand by its guns."

Although nothing major was solved by the discussions in the meeting, senators did inform candidates that although endorsements could not be given by organizations because the deadline passed, organizational support could be given. It was also mentioned that ballot write-ins would be accepted.

Other Senate business included the election of a new educational coordinator, a proposal to restructure the open Senate meetings and discussion about the sexual offense policy and a student employee grievance policy.

The resignation two weeks ago of first-year Sandor Winkler left the officer seat of educational coordinator vacant. Sunday, Koch was internally nominated and elected to fill the position. The education coordinator has the task of keeping senators informed about campus issues and also plans the senatorial retreats.

The proposal to restructure Senate open meetings was brought forth by Lau and first-year senator Kate Davoli. In an effort to make things more efficient, they proposed to cut out several regular points on the agenda, including excuses and advisory council updates. They also finished a project started by former senator Angela Migally, to create an informational pamphlet about Senate process for guests who attend the open meetings.

There were brief updates about the sexual offense policy revision that was brought forth by senior Deborah Gardner. Senate also discussed briefly a student employee grievance policy written by members of the Student Employment Office. The two groups will work together to get the policy completed in time for the last General Faculty Meeting of the year.