Special mid-term elections have been scheduled for this Sunday and Monday to fill the positions opened by the passage of the Student Council's new constitution, which effectively dismissed the three elected class representatives of the freshman, sophomore and junior classes.
An additional fourth position is available in each, as the constitution calls for the election of four "Senators' per class rather than the three "Representatives' under the old constitution's terms.
The senior class representatives and the Class Officers of all four classes will remain in office until the end of the year, as usual. Although no seniors were discharged, there will be an election to fill the fourth senatorial position on the same date.
In accordance with the new constitution, the four Senators elected will each have a specific responsibility and head up their own committee. The vacant positions are Senator for Committee on Authorization, for the Committee on Leadership Appointments, for the Committee on Legislation and for the Committee on Finance.
Students interested in running were instructed to present their Candidate Agreements and the required fifty signatures to the Board of Elections by 10 p.m. Tuesday night. All nine of the dismissed representatives are running for re-election.
The stated intention of the revised constitution, which was proposed by freshman Jared Ede, is to further democratize StuCo and more efficiently distribute power and responsibility among the members.
"The new division of StuCo is the Student Assembly, which resembles the Representative Town Meeting," said Freshman Class President, Jae Jin. "Now the sixteen senators -- who can more directly represent the students -- make many more of the decisions. We've been relegated to the diplomatic aspects of the process."
Many StuCo members feel that the constitution is too idealistic and not as functional as needed. The sudden deposition of such a significant portion of officials has thrown the inner workings of the Student Council into a tailspin, diverting all the attention of the standing members to the approaching elections.
Gavin Maguire, one of the sophomore representatives displaced, said, "Having this increased democratization of StuCo is only going to lead to stagnation. It ends all the progress that has been made thus far this year, and it forces students to run for positions that entail responsibilities they aren't likely to have the opportunity to understand ahead of time."
Senior Senator, Lindsay Allan, agrees, "We're essentially starting all over again. We are coming into a busy time and we lost a lot of people who have the experience we need to be able to keep things running as they should be."
She continued, "It's really hard to find anything positive in having to go through the election process again. The people on the council were elected for a reason, they followed all the rules and got elected in the ways they were supposed to."
While it certainly would be beneficial for former representatives to be re-elected -- in terms of expediting a recovery of the authority and functionality of StuCo -- at least four new members will join the council on Tuesday morning.
Further stagnation could result if the displaced representatives are not re-elected. "Everyone had just gotten used to the way things work and we all knew how much work other people were capable of doing. Now with the possibility that some of us won't get re-elected, it could cause some major problems and slow things down severely," said junior representative Russell Hayden.
The Board of Elections determined that holding the elections before the end of the fall semester was necessary, but with only a week left before exams, they were pushed back even farther prevent interference with exams.
Matt Boulabasis, co-chair of the Board of Elections, said that it would be unacceptable for the election to be held during exams. He also explained that Jeffrey Groden-Thomas, Director of Student Involvement, requested that the elections be held as early as possible.
Until the elections have passed the Student Council can do very little more than prepare for the changes that will come with the reconstruction of the group's bylaws. Once the positions have been filled, StuCo can then return to the duties it has been selected to perform. Freshman Secretary/Treasurer Beverly Lee said, "I feel bad for the reps because they're not only just about to start exams, but the little things they were trying to get done are out of their hands. As for us, our hands are tied."
