The recent undergraduate-approved Student Council (StuCo) constitution has left StuCo with no bylaws and no class representatives. Until new Senators are elected and new bylaws are passed, "Student Council is dead in water," according to Director of Student Involvement Jeff Groden-Thomas.
This process started not too long ago on Nov. 17. Freshman Jered Ede submitted an online petition to the Board of Elections (BoE) beginning a process that has led to the current situation: one that many involved say is hindered by a rushed course of action and insufficient publicity.
"When I emailed the BoE and sent them my petition online, I did ask the co-chair to expedite this as much as possible so that it would not run into finals period," said Ede, "but when I said that, I did not expect quite the reaction I got."
The petition easily gained the 200 necessary signatures by the next day, Nov. 18. By the time StuCo met later that night, BoE had already set up a special election for the upcoming Sunday and Monday before Thanksgiving break.
"I think that it came at an inconvenient time, but I think that these things always tend to be inconvenient," said former freshman representative Rebecca Shrago.
The BoE organized a student debate, which they announced at the StuCo meeting and was reported in the Nov. 20 issue of the News-Letter, to take place Friday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. Ede, who did not attend the StuCo meeting, was notified of the debate 24 hours before the event. BoE sent out a campus-wide e-mail four hours before the debate.
Roughly 35 people attended the debate, a good proportion of which consisted of StuCo members who were previously informed.
"If I had known about it earlier I probably would have gone out and tried to get more people to come," said Ede.
In two days of voting the referendum passed by a margin of 67 votes. In total, 711 students voted, approximately 18.7 percent of the student body.
"I was surprised that that many people even came out, because I didn't think that many people even knew about it," said Ede, "With such a quick process I was not real hopeful about the turnout."
At the next StuCo meeting, just two days before Thanksgiving, BoE co-chair Matthew Bouloubasis addressed a shorthanded Council and informed them that the election process for 13 senatorial positions would begin immediately following Thanksgiving break. Candidate petitions for election were due on Dec. 2. Bouloubasis defended BoE's timeframe and said, "[the BoE] is trying to get it done before finals start, so cut us some slack."
According to the BoE co-chairs, since the referendum passed, the administration, through Groden-Thomas has, been pressuring them to have this process completed as soon as possible. Bouloubasis also announced that all information would be on the BoE Web site, but the information only appeared on the Web site this Monday -- six days after the BoE announced it at the StuCo meeting, and the day before the Senatorial petitions were due.
"This is one of those things where I really wish the BoE had done a better job. I found out on Monday, I just visited on random chance the BoE Web site," said Ede, "I have had contact with one person that actually didn't run because of the short amount of time. Because he just didn't have time to go and get the votes."
StuCo members and those present at the sparsely attended meeting before Thanksgiving had a six-day advantage with these elections.
"If someone was not involved in Student Council or if they didn't know anyone involved in Student Council then they probably would have had no idea about any of the deadlines for this election," said former junior class representative Vidya Mahadevan.
"The fact that none of the material was online until the day before deadline is absolutely ridiculous," she said.
The day the petitions were due, an e-mail was sent out from the BoE notifying the student body of the special elections and informing them that 50 signatures were due by 10 p.m. that evening.
According to the BoE, the e-mail was submitted the day before but could not be sent because it was pending a resolution of a related matter.
The BoE chose not to notify the student population until Monday morning over concerns that a pre-Thanksgiving e-mail would be easily forgotten.
Students who were unaware of the procedures before receiving the e-mail had only a few hours to fulfill the requirements needed to be a candidate.
"It does seem like the process has been incredibly fast," said Dean of Student Life Susan K. Boswell, whose office provides a budget of over $400,000 annually to Student Council and its affiliates.
-- Staff Writers Teresa Matejovsky and Raphael Schweber-Koren contributed to this article.
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